The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of southern California, in the southwestern United States.
The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of southern California, in the southwestern United States.
The Santa Rosa Mountains extend for approximately 30 miles (48 km) along the western side of the Coachella Valley within Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial Counties in Southern California. The range connects to the San Jacinto Mountains on its northern end, where the Pines to Palms Highway—California State Route 74, crosses them. [1]
The highest peak in the range is Toro Peak (elevation 8,716 feet (2,657 m)), located approximately 22 miles (35 km) south of Palm Springs, just south of Route 74, and on the northeast side of Anza-Borrego's Upper Coyote Canyon. The Santa Rosa Mountains are also a Great Basin Divide landform for the Salton Sink Watershed on the east. Besides Toro Peak, other significant mountains in the range include Santa Rosa Mountain, Martinez Mountain in the north and Rabbit Peak in the south. [2]
The oldest accounts of the southeastern reaches of the Santa Rosa Mountains survive from the 1774 Spanish expedition led by explorer Juan Bautista de Anza into colonial Las Californias through the Coachella Valley from the populated Viceroyalty of New Spain region (present day Mexico). [3] 19th century maps of the region show the Santa Rosas as a southern extension of the higher northern San Jacinto Mountains. The name "Santa Rosa Mountains" first came into use by the USGS in 1901.
The Santa Rosa range lies within the Colorado Desert (lower elevations) and California montane chaparral and woodlands (higher elev.) ecoregions of flora and fauna. The California desert chaparral flora and fauna community is found here on the eastern rainshadow side. The mountain peaks contain plants such as the rock draba, Ziegler's aster, shaggy-haired alumroot and Davidson's stonecrop. [4] Also in the eastern Santa Rosa Mountains, in canyons with natural oases, the native California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera) is found. [5] They are also the home of a population of endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, endemic to the Peninsular Ranges and distinct from the Desert Bighorn Sheep.
Most of the northern portion of the range, in Riverside County, is within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. It was created in 2000 and is administered jointly by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service—San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF). [6] [7] The southern portion of the range, with Toro Peak, is west of the Salton Sea and within the northeastern Borrego Badlands area of the expansive Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Both provide interpretive visitor centers, trailheads, and many trails for experiencing the Santa Rosa Mountains at all elevations. In 1990 the California Legislature created the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy to protect this and other mountain ranges surrounding the Coachella Valley. [8]
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert and ecoregion which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona, California, Northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is the hottest desert in Mexico. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi). The western portion of the United States–Mexico border passes through the Sonoran Desert.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 585,930 acres (237,120 ha) that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California.
The Low Desert is a common name for any desert in California that is under 2,000 feet in altitude. These areas include, but are not exclusive to, the Colorado Desert and Yuha Desert, in the Southern California portion of the Sonoran Desert. These areas are distinguished in biogeography from the adjacent northern High Desert or Mojave Desert by latitude, elevation, animal life, climate, and native plant communities.
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for one of the first Black Friars, Saint Hyacinth, who is a popular patron in Latin America.
The Little San Bernardino Mountains are a short mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately 40 mi (64 km) southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties to near the northeast edge of the Salton Sink and Salton Sea.
California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately 7 million acres, including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California. Their original territory included an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km2). The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California. It was bounded to the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, to the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, to the east by the Colorado Desert, and to the west by the San Jacinto Plain and the eastern slopes of the Palomar Mountains.
Washingtonia filifera, also known as desert fan palm, California fan palm, or California palm, is a flowering plant in the palm family (Arecaceae) native to the far southwestern United States and Baja California. Growing to 15–20 m (49–66 ft) tall by 3–6 m (10–20 ft) broad, it is an evergreen monocot with a tree-like growth habit. It has a sturdy, columnar trunk and waxy, fan-shaped (palmate) leaves.
The San Bernardino National Forest is a United States National Forest in Southern California encompassing 823,816 acres (3,333.87 km2) of which 677,982 acres (2,743.70 km2) are federal. The forest is made up of two main divisions, the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains on the easternmost of the Transverse Ranges, and the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains on the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges. Elevations range from 2,000 to 11,499 feet. The forest includes seven wilderness areas: San Gorgonio, Cucamonga, San Jacinto, South Fork, Santa Rosa, Cahuilla Mountain and Bighorn Mountain. Forest headquarters are located in the city of San Bernardino. There are district offices in Lytle Creek, Idyllwild, and Fawnskin.
The Orocopia Mountains are located in Riverside County in southern California, United States, east of the Coachella Valley, west of the Chuckwalla Mountains, and south of Interstate 10 in the Colorado Desert. The range lies in an east-west direction, and is approximately 18 miles long. The Orocopia Mountains are north of and overlooking the Salton Sea and south of Joshua Tree National Park, with the Chocolate Mountains to the southeast and the scenic Mecca Hills just northwest.
The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a National Monument in southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, the northernmost ones of the Peninsular Ranges system. The national monument covers portions of Riverside County, west of the Coachella Valley, approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Hot Springs Mountain is a peak located in the Peninsular Ranges in California. The mountain rises to an elevation of 6,535 feet (1,992 m) and is the highest point in San Diego County. Some snow falls on the mountain peak during winter. It is located in a remote region of the county, 4 miles from the community of Warner Springs, 12 miles from Borrego Springs, and 50 miles from San Diego. The mountain and its immediate surroundings belong to the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians. The summit and fire tower can be hiked via the Sukat Road route from the campground. Hikers and campers must pay an entry fee to access the area.
The Sierra Pinta or Sierra Pintas are a narrow remote block faulted northwest-southeast trending mountain range, about 22 miles (35 km) long located in southwestern Arizona in the arid northwestern Sonoran Desert, just north of the Pinacate Reserve of northern Sonora, Mexico. The mountains derive their name from visitor descriptions of its multicolored hues when viewed at sunrise and sunset.
The Santa Rosa Wilderness is a 72,259-acre (292.42 km2) wilderness area in Southern California, in the Santa Rosa Mountains of Riverside and San Diego counties, California. It is in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert, above the Coachella Valley and Lower Colorado River Valley regions in a Peninsular Range, between La Quinta to the north and Anza Borrego Desert State Park to the south. The United States Congress established the wilderness in 1984 with the passage of the California Wilderness Act, managed by the both US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In 2009, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act was signed into law which added more than 2,000 acres (8.1 km2). Most of the Santa Rosa Wilderness is within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.
Toro Peak, in Southern California, is the highest mountain in the Santa Rosa Mountain Range. It is located 15 mi (24 km) south of Palm Springs, 12 mi (19 km) west of the Salton Sea, and 31 mi (50 km) east of Temecula, in the County of Riverside, California.
The geography of southern California refers to the geography of southern California in the United States.
Flora of the Colorado Desert, located in Southern California. The Colorado Desert is a sub-region in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion of southwestern North America. It is also known as the Low Desert, in contrast to the higher elevation Mojave Desert or High Desert, to its north.
The Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center is one of the original seven of the total 39 sites in the University of California Natural Reserve System. It contains lands originally donated to the University by regent Philip L. Boyd in 1958. The Research Center is contained within UNESCO's Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve.
Rabbit Peak is a mountain in the southern part of the Santa Rosa Mountains in the Peninsular Ranges in California. It is located in Riverside County in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument near the border of San Diego County and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It has an elevation of 6,653 feet. It is located 14 miles northeast of Borrego Springs and 20 miles south of Indio.
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