San Gorgonio Wilderness
Map SatelliteMount San Gorgonio, at 3,506 meters (11,502 feet), is the highest peak in Southern California, and the area has floral and faunal affinities with the Sierra Nevada and other mountainous areas to the north.
The slopes of the mountain are heavily forested with lodgepole and ponderosa pines, Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana and Pinus ponderosa, and white fir, Abies concolor. At the higher elevations a sub-alpine forest dominated by limber pine, Pinus flexilis, occurs; at the timberline above 3,050 meters (10,000 feet) these trees form an extensive krummholz. Above timberline open alpine areas with sparse vegetation occur, snow melt being the main source of water for much of the vegetation. Many plant species common at the timberline in the Sierra occur here. Endemic plants on the alpine areas include Draba corrugata, Galium parishii, Oreonana vestita and Oxytropis oreophila.
Faunal affinities are similar and there is a notable disjunct occurrence of the flying squirrel, Glaucomys sabrinus, in the area. The desert bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis nelsoni, is found here.
The mountain is composed of various rock types, primarily mesozoic intrusive granite and adamellite, though there is a large area of a pre-Cambrian metamorphic complex nearby. Near the summit small glacial deposits show that glaciers were present in Southern California during the Pleistocene.
The suggestion has been made that the affinities with the northerly mountains were established during the glacial period when the subalpine forests were much lower and probably occurred on mountains linking these with the northerly mountains.
Integrity: The area is in a wilderness category, but the heavy use may have a detrimental impact.
Use: Research, educational, recreational
January 1975
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman