The San Bernardino Valley () is a valley in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

located at the south base of the

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of Southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa Ba ...

. It is bordered on the north by the eastern

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...

and the

San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...

; on the east by the

San Jacinto Mountains The San Jacinto Mountains ()Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. are a mountain range in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles in southern California i ...

; on the south by the Temescal Mountains and

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riversid ...

; and on the west by the

Pomona Valley The Pomona Valley is located in the Greater Los Angeles Area between the San Gabriel Valley and San Bernardino Valley in Southern California. The valley is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The earliest inhabitants of Pomo ...

Elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

varies from on valley floors near Chino to near San Bernardino and Redlands. The valley floor is home to over 80% of the more than 4 million people in the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

region.

History

The San Bernardino Valley was originally inhabited by Californian Native Americans, including the Serrano,

Cahuilla The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California. ...

, and

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

tribes. The Mohave Trail, a trade route from the Mohave villages on the Colorado River that crossed the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

from spring to spring and then followed the

Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the ti ...

upstream, entered the valley from the slopes of Monument Peak in the

. The Spanish missionaries established the Politana rancheria in the valley in 1810, an ''estancia'', or ranch outpost, of

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel Mission San Gabriel Arcángel () is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish mi ...

. It was built to graze

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, and for Indian Reductions of the

Serrano people The Serrano are an Indigenous people of California. Their autonyms are Taaqtam meaning "people", Maarrênga'yam meaning "people from Morongo", and Yuhaaviatam meaning "people of the pines." Today the Maarrênga'yam are enrolled in the Moron ...

and Cahuilla people into

Mission Indians Mission Indians was a term used to refer to the Indigenous peoples of California who lived or grew up in the Spanish mission system in California. Today the term is used to refer to their descendants and to specific, contemporary tribal nations ...

. After being destroyed in a revolt, the ''estancia'' was later reestablished as San Bernardino de Sena Estancia in 1830. It is now a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...

and museum in Redlands. From 1829, the Old Spanish Trail from

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...

was established and entered the valley through Crowder Canyon and the lower canyon of

Cajon Pass Cajon Pass (; Spanish: ''Puerto del Cajón'' or ''Paso del Cajón'') is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andr ...

. In 1841, Governor Juan B. Alvarado of

issued a Mexican land grant for Rancho San Bernardino, which included most of the San Bernardino Valley, to José del Carmen Lugo, José Maria Lugo, Vincente Lugo, and their cousin Jose Diego Sepulveda. Included were all of the original ''estencia'' buildings: the chapel, a

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

, a lime

, and a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

. By offering land, José Maria Lugo convinced a group of settlers from Abiquiu, New Mexico to settle on his rancho at Politania and defend against Indian raiders and outlaws preying on the herds of the Ranchos in Southern California. These emigrants first colonized Politana on the Rancho San Bernardino in 1842. Don Lorenzo Trujillo brought the first colony of settlers from New Mexico to settle on land provided by the Lugos about one half mile south of the Indian village of La Politana. Later they moved to found a new village known as "La Placita de los Trujillos", later called La Placita on the south side of the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino and Riversid ...

. American settlers in the region included soldiers from the Mormon Battalion in 1847, after the California Campaign of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

was won by the U.S. In 1851, the Lugo family sold Rancho San Bernardino to a group of almost 500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) led by Captain David Seely (later first Stake President), Captain Jefferson Hunt, and Captain Andrew Lytle, and also included Apostles Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich.

Geography

The San Bernardino Valley owes its existence to the convergence of several mountain ranges that feed into the

basin. This basin ultimately channels water to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

via Riverside and Orange County. The valley connects several open space natural areas, mountains, and valley vistas. The San Bernardino Valley is surrounded by

nature preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geolog ...

s, national forests, and recreational areas. Many people travel through the valley for a variety of outdoor mountain sports, including skiing, hiking, biking, and ballooning—in the mountain resorts of Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear City. Once part of

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

, the San Bernardino Valley is now crossed by two Interstates.

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway in the Western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexican border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Ca ...

enters the valley from the south, and exits on the north over

to the

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

enters the valley from Pomona in the west, and exits on the east over

San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation Gap (landform), gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Faul ...

to the

Colorado Desert The Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to ...

and

Coachella Valley The Coachella Valley ( ) is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic promine ...

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

, in her essay "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream," describes the San Bernardino Valley as "...in certain ways an alien place: not the coastal California of the subtropical twilights and the soft westerlies of the Pacific but a harsher California, haunted by the Mojave just beyond the mountains, devastated by the hot dry Santa Ana wind that comes down through the passes at 100 miles an hour and works on the nerves."

Geology

The San Bernardino Valley encompasses one of two

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s of the

, the Inland Santa Ana Basin. Underneath the surface area of this drainage basin, which takes excess rainwater out of the valley, are several large

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

sub-basins, underlain by the impermeable granitic rock of the Perris Block, which capture water in

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

s underground. Designated ground water sub-basins include: Chino, Rialto-Colton, Riverside-Arlington, San Bernardino (Bunker Hill), Yucaipa and San Timoteo. The San Bernardino or Bunker Hill basin is bounded on the northeast by the

, northwest by the

, southwest by the San Timoteo badlands, and southeast by the Crafton Hills.Catchings, R.D., Rymer, M.J., Goldman, M.R., Gandhok, and G., Steedman, C.E., (2008)
Structure of the San Bernardino Basin along two seismic transects; Rialto-Colton fault to the San Andreas fault and along the I-215 freeway (I-10 to SR30)
U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2008-1197 The

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental Fault (geology)#Strike-slip faults, right-lateral strike-slip transform fault that extends roughly through the U.S. state of California. It forms part of the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Paci ...

and San Jacinto Fault zones enter the valley along the San Bernardino Mountains and San Jacinto Mountains, respectively. The two fault lines converge to less than 10 km apart in the city of San Bernardino, and less than 3 km in the northwestern part of the basin near the

Cities and communities

* Bloomington * Colton * Devore * Fontana * Grand Terrace *

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

* Loma Linda * Muscoy * Oak Glen * Redlands * Rialto * San Bernardino * Yucaipa

Climate

The climate is

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

with cool-to-cold, wet, and in some cases snowy winters, and dry, hot summers. Usually the areas north of Interstate 210 and east of Interstate 215 see colder weather in the winter with occasional snowfall. Sage scrub and the

Yucca ''Yucca'' ( , YUCK-uh) is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayon ...

plant are the predominant natural vegetation along washes and uplands; it intergrades with

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

at elevations of 600 to 700 meters. Other vegetation consists of a patchwork of

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s, riparian woodlands, and mixed hardwood forests, which border the valley in the mountains on the north and east. The

Santa Ana wind The Santa Ana winds, occasionally referred to as the devil winds, are strong, extremely dry katabatic winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure a ...

s blow into the valley from the

, which exits the valley's north end between the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. At times, the seasonal

s are felt particularly strongly in the San Bernardino area as warm and dry air is channeled through nearby

during the autumn months. This phenomenon markedly increases the wildfire danger in the foothill, canyon, and mountain communities, which the cycle of cold, wet winters and dry summers helps create.

Local attractions

The Route 66 Rendezvous in downtown San Bernardino attracts about half a million people annually from all over the world to watch California's largest classical car show. Although not in the valley, the

attract a significant amount of tourism to the valley as people drive up to the local resorts, especially in the winter months. A famous ski resort in the area is

Big Bear Big Bear, also known as (; – 17 January 1888), was a powerful and popular Cree chief who played many pivotal roles in Canadian history. He was appointed to chief of his band at the age of 40 upon the death of his father, Black Powder, u ...

. Other famous mountain communities with large amounts of tourism include Lake Arrowhead,

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the Western United States, western United States, located in the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County, California. It is a snow and rain-fed lake, having no other m ...

, and Crestline. National forests surrounding the high valley include the

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest is a National forest (United States), U.S. national forest in Southern California that encompasses 460,000 acres/ of inland Montane ecosystems, montane regions. It is approximately 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, withi ...

and the

San Bernardino National Forest The San Bernardino National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California encompassing of which are federal. The forest is made up of two main divisions, the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernar ...

Transportation

Despite a significant number of the cities and towns being "bedroom communities" with residents commuting to nearby Los Angeles or Orange counties for work, the San Bernardino Valley is an important transportation center to the state and country. Located approximately 70 miles east of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a high percentage of goods destined for the rest of the country as well as items on their way out to the world pass through the valley, most of it on trains or trucks. Both

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

and

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

have tracks that run through the valley. In addition, BNSF has an intermodal transfer facility in San Bernardino. The valley is also crossed by two major interstates and their auxiliaries. Additionally, the communities in the mountains north of the valley are served by several state highways. Mass transit trains and buses both serve the valley. Also, goods and people movement by air is available via two commercial international airports as well as several general aviation air fields. The Greater San Bernardino Area, along with the rest of the Inland Empire, is ranked by ''Forbes'' magazine as one of the American's unhealthiest commutes.

Highways

;Interstate Highways * San Bernardino Freeway (

) *

* Foothill Freeway ( Interstate 210) * Interstate 215 ;State Highways * California 18

State Route 18 * California 38

State Route 38 * California 60

State Route 60 * California 66

State Route 66 * California 138

State Route 138 * California 210

State Route 210 * California 259

State Route 259 * California 330

State Route 330

Mass transportation

Although a high percentage of valley residents drive their own cars, there are several available options for mass transit. The largest bus agency in the Greater San Bernardino area is Omnitrans, which covers virtually the entire valley.Omnitrans. ''Omnitrans: Serving the San Bernardino Valley''
/ref> The Omni lines also meet lines for

Foothill Transit Foothill Transit is a public transit agency that is government funded by 22 member cities in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. It operates a fixed-route bus public transit service in the San Gabriel Valley region of eastern Los Angeles Cou ...

and Riverside Transit Agency buses, providing connectivity to Riverside County and Los Angeles County. The area is also served by Metrolink's San Bernardino Line and the

Inland Empire–Orange County Line The Inland Empire–Orange County (IEOC) Line is a commuter rail line run by Metrolink in Southern California. It runs from San Bernardino through Orange County to Oceanside in northern San Diego County. When the line opened it became the f ...

. These lines lead to the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas.

Railroad

The two main railroads in the valley are

(UP) and

. Both have extensive yards in the valley and it is an important area for national movement of goods. UP tracks enter the valley from the south alongside the BNSF tracks in Colton/Grand Terrace. They then continue north until the Colton Crossing, where they then turn east. Union Pacific also has a second set of tracks that were the Southern Pacific tracks until they took over SP. These tracks enter the valley from the west through Ontario, passing alongside I-10 until Loma Linda, where they turn and exit the valley to the southeast. The BNSF track enters the valley from the south by Colton/Grand Terrace as well, but continues north at the Colton Crossing. It then enters the intermodal and car transfer yards, where it turns east for about one mile. It then turns north again, running alongside I-215 until it meets I-15 in Devore and exits the valley via the Cajon Pass. Union Pacific also has a line that exits the valley through the pass. The Colton Crossing, located in Colton, is the point where the tracks of the two companies cross.

Airports

The San Bernardino Valley is served by two major commercial airports.

References

{{Authority control Valleys of San Bernardino County, California Inland Empire Geography of San Bernardino, California Colton, California Fontana, California Redlands, California Rialto, California Geology of San Bernardino County, California Regions of California Valleys of California