San Jacinto Mountains national monument~Nature Notes~011212

On my way to visit my horses, I travel through the San Jacinto mountains national monument, which is right next to Deep Canyon.  The monument is a total of 272,000 acres, which includes 61,000 acres of BLM land, 19,000 of forest service land, and the rest belongs to the Agua Caliente tribe of the Cahuilla Indians.  I only travel through a portion of the monument, which extends all the way to Mt. San Jacinto, at 10,831 feet.  It is located near Idyllwild, CA and I don't travel that far every weekend.  I love to explore the mountains, especially the pinyon forest, along the way, like this area above Deep Canyon, which is one of my favorite areas.  I find that every time I stop here and explore, I feel refreshed and my head clears of all stress and strain!  I always enjoy my time up in these mountains and now that the afternoons are starting to lengthen, I may start taking some drives up there in the afternoons!  :-)  There is an excellent visitor center at the bottom of the mountains, the Santa Rosa Mountains visitor center.  It has lots of books, movies, and "hands on" activities for the kids.  I sometimes walk there in the mornings, but it's still too dark for that right now.  Nature Notes for January 12, 2012.  To visit Nature Notes, please go to this link:  http://ramblingwoods.com/