The Providence Mountains State Recreation Area is located in the

Providence Mountains The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of at Edgar Peak and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State R ...

, within the

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 in California, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31 ...

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the ...

. It is also home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve. Providence Visitor Center

Geography

The Recreation Area is located on the east side of the Providence Mountain range and has dramatic views of the surrounding

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

. On approaching the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area one can see layers of tilted grey rock that are ancient

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

formed during the

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

Era. The base elevation of the park is 4,300 feet with the Providence Mountains reaching to 7000 feet.

Flora

Vegetation on the lower parts of the mountains is xeric shrublands scrub habitat, composed of

creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...

(''Larrea tridentata''), California barrel cactus (''Ferocactus cylindraceus''), and

Mojave yucca ''Yucca schidigera'', also known as the Mojave yucca or Spanish dagger, is a flowering plant native to the southwest deserts of North America. Description ''Yucca schidigera'' is a small evergreen tree growing to tall, with a dense crown of sp ...

(''Yucca schidigera''). The

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

dramatically shifts with elevations above 4000 feet to a

sky island Sky islands are topographic isolation, isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated montane ecosystems, hi ...

where numerous animals and plants flourish in the added moisture caught by the mountains. The plant habitat includes forests of

single-leaf pinyon ''Pinus monophylla'', the single-leaf pinyon, (alternatively spelled piñon) is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and southe ...

(''Pinus monophylla'') and

California juniper ''Juniperus californica'', the California juniper, is a species of juniper native to southwestern North America. Description ''Juniperus californica'' is a shrub or small tree reaching , but rarely up to tall. The bark is ashy gray, typically t ...

(''Juniperus californica''), and remnant chaparral and woodlands with oaks (''Quercus turbinella'') and

manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...

in these higher parts of the mountains. Mitchell Caverns is home to two

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species of insects found nowhere else.

Access

The Providence Mountains State Recreation Area is located at the north-western end of Essex Road, off of

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

(the Needles Freeway). The visitor center is located in a historic 1934 stone dwelling. The campground is currently closed.

Closure

Providence Mountain Recreation Area was one of the 48 California State Parks proposed for closure in January 2008 by California's Governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

as part of a deficit reduction program. It closed temporarily in January 2011.

Reopening

Providence Mountains State Recreation Area and Mitchell Caverns reopened on November 3, 2017, after being closed for nearly seven years due to major infrastructure upgrades."Reopening" , http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=615 ,

References

External links

* Officia
Providence Mountains State Recreation Area website
{{authority control Mojave National Preserve Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Parks in San Bernardino County, California Caves of California Landforms of San Bernardino County, California