Old Woman Mountains | mountain range

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The Old Woman Mountains are located south of the town of Essex, California, and north of Danby Dry Lake. The range reaches an elevation of 3,720 feet (1,130 m) at the northeastern end (Mercury Mountain), and lies in San Bernardino County in the Mojave Desert.

The mountain range is approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide east to west at the widest point, and 25 miles (40 km) in length from north to south. The mountains receive very little precipitation, with just 4-10 inches of rain falling in a normal year. The Old Woman Statue, a prominent rock formation, is found on the eastern side of the range about two miles (3 km) south of Paramount Spring. The Old Woman Mountains Wilderness area is also part of the range.

The lower elevations of the range are dominated by Creosote bush scrub, with juniper-pinyon woodland found in the higher elevations. The dry washes are characterized by catclaw acacia, cheesebush, desert lavender, little-leaf ratany, and desert almond.

Animals found in the mountains include: bighorn sheep, mule deer, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, black-tailed jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, and several species of lizards.

Numerous raptor species are likely to be found in the area; including prairie falcons, red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, Cooper's hawks, American kestrels, as well as several species of owls. The washes and canyons provide good habitat for several species of songbirds, and the bird densities and diversity is further enhanced by the presence of the known 24 springs and seeps.

The mountains were the discovery site of the Old Woman Meteorite, the largest meteorite ever found in the state. The meteorite is now on display at the Desert Information Center in Barstow, California.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Woman_Mountains
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°26'13"N   115°10'16"W

Comments

  • Alas - If you can't hike long distances in the desert, the Sierra Club has made it illegal for you to ever visit this place
  • I've been here a dozen times and am thankful it's been designated wilderness. Not EVERY PLACE ON EARTH should have RV access! PCmaps your bitterness posted all over these sites is getting really old. Grow up.
  • Sir Gary: It is true a great many of the interesting places in the Mojave have been declared Wilderness, off limits to anyone who can't hike. I'm guessing you have been blessed with the ability to hike in the desert. Sadly, not everyone is so fortunate. The weak, the handicapped, the infirm were not honored with your gift. Wilderness designation says to those elderly, handicapped, and infirm - You are Not welcome. In fact, you are prohibited by law from ever seeing this place. Some truly amazing Americans just lost their legs in Boston; thousands of Americans have lost limbs in Iraq & Afghanistan. I don't see how we as a people can, in any conscious, support laws that expressly prohibit these very people, and millions of other Americans similarly disadvantaged, from ever visiting some of the most beautiful and treasured parts of our Country. Our beautiful land should be accessible to everyone, and not reserved for just those who have already been blessed with the ability to hike.
  • Wow....I awoke and fell asleep each day at the shadow of these mountains, having grown up in Chambless.
  • More things need to be done to limit access. The world's population is exploding, yet there is not any more land. It is getting harder and harder to get away from the herds. Great natural places with easy access, national parks for example, are being ruined by crowds of people. Case in point Yosemite and Zion - sometimes the traffic in and around these places is worse than the big city you came from. It is nice that there are still some places in southern California that you can explore and have solitude, that are not ruined by the trash, traffic, and noise that humans bring in.
  • I completely agree, the world's population is exploding, and I wish we had a government interested in solving that problem. But a solution that says "I, with my strong legs, can visit whenever and as long as I like. You, Mr Veteran who gave your legs to defend our country, and you cancer victim who can't hike – you can Never visit here." That solution seems very unjust . . .
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This article was last modified 4 years ago