I just returned moments ago from the Santa Rosa Mountains here in Southern California. It was a beautiful weekend (5/10,11) up there with comfortable temperatures and some dark afternoon thunder clouds. We spent 12+ hours out Saturday bagging some obscure benchmarks around Santa Rosa Mountain's southern slopes. Much of our time was spent wrestling with dense brush, despite the fact that there were also some thick pine forests with running streams and even a few late-blooming snow plants. We had originally planned to car camp on the summit of Santa Rosa Mountain (an HPS drive up), but unfortunately, about 150 feet (or so) just after you leave the main USFS road (7S02) onto the Santa Rosa Mountain access spur, vehicular progress is blocked by a large fallen tree that completely blocks the road. It will take a chain saw, at least, to "reduce" this obstacle. Also, the summit's cabin has burned to the ground (apparently some time ago) and we found no HPS register. We also took a five hour hike today (Sunday) bagging a couple more benchmarks near Toro. This area is one of my favorites, with the views into the Anza Borrego Valley and other nearby Canyons being amongst the best there are to be had. In addition to Santa Rosa Mountain, the benchmarks bagged included (only shown on the Palm Desert 16 map): Leif, Tip, Yam, Ham, Gene, Ode, and Ted. We also searched for, but couldn't find, the alleged Indian Village Site indicated on the 15' maps.
