Qualla: San Bernardino National Forest

San Bernardino National Forest: Introduction

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain. Stand at the edge of a ridge in the San Bernardino National Forest and the desert begins below you — but the forest itself reaches back into deep time. Established in 1907, it sprawls across 823,816 acres from the Inland Empire's suburban fringe to the volcanic peaks above Palm Springs, threading through seven wilderness areas and harboring the two tallest waterfalls in Southern California. It is a landscape of radical contrasts, where you can drive from Joshua trees at 3,000 feet to limber pines at over 10,000 feet in an afternoon.

Image: US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region 5 | Public domain

San Bernardino National Forest: Giants and Fault Lines

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain. Somewhere within the forest's boundaries, 87,400 acres of old-growth timber stand largely undisturbed — one of the largest remaining old-growth landscapes in Southern California. Beneath one of its most photogenic features, Lost Lake, the ground is literally moving: the sag pond ...

Image: Pacific Southwest Region 5 | Public domain

San Bernardino National Forest: Wild Residents

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain. The forest's most famous current inhabitants are a bald eagle pair known as Jackie and Shadow, who nest near Big Bear Lake and have been live-streamed by viewers around the world. Bald eagles returned to Southern California mountains only after decades of DDT-driven decline nearl...

Image: US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region 5 | Public domain

San Bernardino National Forest: Where Hollywood Came to Hide

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scottthezombie (talk) (Transferred by JaumeBG/Originally uploaded by Scottthezombie), CC BY-SA 3.0. Filmmakers discovered early that the San Bernardino Mountains offered everything a studio couldn't build on a backlot: real forests, real granite, real altitude. The 1936 film Daniel Boone shot scenes among its pines. Paint Your Wagon, the 1969 Lerner and Loewe musical western st...

Image: Scottthezombie (talk) (Transferred by JaumeBG/Originally uploaded by Scottthezombie) | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Bernardino National Forest: Seven Wildernesses

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scottthezombie (talk) (Transferred by JaumeBG/Originally uploaded by Scottthezombie), CC BY-SA 3.0. The forest contains seven designated wilderness areas, each with its own character. The San Gorgonio Wilderness protects San Gorgonio Mountain — at 11,503 feet, the highest peak in Southern California — and requires permits for overnight stays. The Cucamonga Wilderness buffers th...

Image: Scottthezombie (talk) (Transferred by JaumeBG/Originally uploaded by Scottthezombie) | CC BY-SA 3.0