Santa Rosa Mountains, California

The Santa Rosa Mountains of this page are in Riverside, San Diego and Imperial Counties, California. They are part of the Peninsular Ranges, oriented northwest to southeast. To the northwest are the San Jacinto Mountains; to the north and east, the Coachella Valley; to the south, the Borrego Valley; and to the west, the Anza Uplands.

John W. Robinson in San Bernardino Mountain Trails says:

South from the Palms-to-Pines Highway, the Santa Rosas rise as a sky island out of the desert foothills.

Highway 74, the Palms-to-Pines Highway, is a convenient, but not entirely accurate, separator of the San Jacintos and the Santa Rosas. Early maps show the Santa Rosas as an extension of the San Jacintos. The name Santa Rosa Mountains did not come into use until 1901, when the Geological Survey completed its mapping of the mountains.

There are many well-known places called "Santa Rosa" that may be a source of potential confusion:

• The City of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County
• The Santa Rosa Plateau in Riverside County west of Murrieta
• Three(!) Santa Rosa Hills, in Lompoc, Lone Pine and Hemet
• Santa Rosa Mountain (singular, not plural), a peak to the northwest of Toro Peak (8,716'), the highest in the Santa Rosa Mountains of this page
• Santa Rosa Peak and mountains called the Santa Rosa Range, in Humboldt County, Nevada
• Santa Rosa Mountains in Pima County, Arizona.

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