San Gorgonio Pass

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A small segment of the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm. This digital photograph, facing due South, was taken near I-10 at the Whitewater cutoff on 2006-04-22. Snow-covered Mt. San Jacinto is seen in the background. The wind currents in the Pass are especially strong, which are desirable for the wind turbines, but can make photographing and driving through this area a bit tricky.

The San Gorgonio Pass (elevation 2600 feet) cuts between the San Bernardino Mountains on the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. Like the Cajon Pass to the northwest, it was also created by the San Andreas Fault. The San Gorgonio Pass provides the main link between the Los Angeles Basin and the Coachella Valley and points further east. The pass itself is not as steep as the Cajon Pass or the Grapevine, but it is still one of the deepest mountain passes in the 48 contiguous states, with the mountains to either side rising almost 9,000 ft (2,750m) above the pass. Mount San Gorgonio is at the pass's northern end, and Mount San Jacinto is at the pass's southern end. Mount San Jacinto also has the fifth-largest rock wall in North America and the peak is only six miles south of Interstate 10.

Interstate 10 and California State Route 60 (former U.S. Highway 60) intersect at the western end of the pass in Beaumont and it climbs through Banning before reaching Cabazon, where it begins its descent towards the Coachella Valley. The eastern end of the pass is at the junction of Interstate 10 and California State Route 111 near Whitewater Canyon. The Southern Pacific Railroad (now the Union Pacific) laid down tracks through the pass in 1875, and in 1952, an expressway was built through the pass, carrying U.S. Highway 99, and U.S. Highway 60. There are still portions of the old US-99 route between Whitewater Canyon and Cabazon, and Ramsey Street in Banning and 6th Street in Beaumont are actually old US-99.

The most famous sight on San Gorgonio Pass is the wind farm on its eastern slope, as it marks the gateway into the Coachella Valley. The pass is one of the windiest places in Southern California, and it is one of three major wind farms in California, with the others being at Altamont Pass and Tehachapi Pass.