Wild Lands & Rivers
Cahuilla Mountain Proposed Wilderness
Size: 6,421 acres
Management Agency: San Bernardino National Forest
Location: Riverside County, Anza Valley, 4 miles northwest of the community of Anza, adjacent to the Cahuilla Indian Reservation.
Description:
Cahuilla Mountain is an important landmark to the communities of the Anza Valley and the neighboring Cahuilla Indian Reservation. It has long held a special place in the hearts of the Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians.
After climbing the three-mile trail to the 5,635-foot summit and passing multi-colored boulders along the way, Cahuilla Mountain offers the visitor spectacular views of the historic Juan Bautista de Anza Trail, majestic San Jacinto Peak, Palomar Mountain, Beauty Mountain and the vast desert landscape to the southeast. Spring wildflower displays are magnificent. The area is home to mountain lion, mule deer, mountain quail and California quail as well as two rare species: the large-blotched salamander and red diamond rattlesnake. The groves of black oak and Coulter pine on top of the mountain are so ecologically significant that the Forest Service has set them aside for scientific research.
Cahuilla Mountain is the setting for one of the most famous novels from early California history, Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, published in 1884. Inspired by her good friend Harriet Beecher Stowe’s revolutionary novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Ms. Jackson sought to tell a story of the plight of Native Americans and to change society’s attitude toward them. The novel is considered an historical classic.