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National Monument
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is a major gateway to the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto
Mountains National Monument traversing the southerly side of the Coachella Valley – officially
designated a treasured natural and cultural resource.
The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument was established by an Act of
Congress on October 24, 2000 “in order to preserve the nationally significant biological, cultur-
al, recreational, geological, educational, and scientific values found in the Santa Rosa and San
Jacinto Mountains and to secure now and for future generations the opportunity to experience
and enjoy the magnificent vistas, wildlife, land forms, and natural and cultural resources in
these mountains”.
A majority of Mount San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness is part of the Santa Rosa and San
Jacinto Mountains National Monument and many of the monument’s beautiful hiking trails
begin at the top of the Tram and extend over the San Jacinto Mountains to the outskirts of Idyll-
wild.
The National Monument’s boundary encompasses about 272,000 acres, including 65,000
acres within the San Jacinto Ranger District of the San Bernardino National Forest, 89,500
acres within the Bureau of Land Management’s California Desert Conservation Area, the Santa
Rosa Wilderness, which contains 61,600 acres of BLM and Forest Service lands, and 19,470
acres of the Forest Service’s San Jacinto Wilderness. Its boundary also surrounds land owned
and administered by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, California Department of
Parks and Recreation, California Department of Fish and Game, other agencies of the State of
California, and private landowners.