The Old Woman Mountains are located south of the town of Essex, California, and north of Danby Dry Lake. The range reaches an elevation of at the west end (Old Woman Mountain), and lies in

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

Geography

The mountain range is approximately wide east to west at the widest point, and in length from north to south. The mountains receive very little precipitation, with just 4-10 inches of rain falling in a normal year. The Old Woman Statue, a prominent rock formation, is found on the eastern side of the range about two miles (3 km) south of Paramount Spring.

Old Woman Mountains Wilderness Area

The

Old Woman Mountains Wilderness Old Woman Mountains Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Old Woman Mountains of the eastern Mojave Desert. It is located south of Essex in San Bernardino County, California. This wilderness was established in 1994, and is managed by the Bureau ...

Area, with many natural features, protects much of the range for recreation.

Flora and fauna

The lower elevations of the range are dominated by

Creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...

scrub, with juniper-pinyon woodland found in the higher elevations. The dry washes are characterized by

catclaw acacia ''Senegalia greggii'', formerly known as ''Acacia greggii'', is a species of tree in the genus ''Senegalia'' native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, from the extreme south of Utah south through southern Nevada, southeast Ca ...

, cheesebush,

desert lavender ''Condea emoryi'' (synonym ''Hyptis emoryi)'', the desert lavender, is a large, multi-stemmed shrub species of flowering plant in Lamiaceae, the mint family. It is one of the favored plants of honeybees in early spring in the southwest deserts ...

, little-leaf ratany, and desert almond. Animals found in the mountains include:

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

, black-tailed

jackrabbit Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...

ground squirrel Ground squirrels are members of the squirrel family of rodents (Sciuridae), which generally live on or in the ground, rather than trees. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known ...

kangaroo rat Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed thi ...

s, and several species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s. Numerous

raptor Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are likely to be found in the area; including prairie falcons,

red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members with ...

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...

Cooper's hawk Cooper's hawk (''Accipiter cooperii'') is a medium-sized hawk native to the North American continent and found from southern Canada to Mexico. This species is a member of the genus ''Accipiter'', sometimes referred to as true hawks, which are f ...

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius''), also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of ...

s, as well as several species of

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s. The washes and canyons provide good habitat for several species of songbirds, and the bird densities and diversity is further enhanced by the presence of the known 24 springs and seeps.

History

The mountains were the discovery site of the Old Woman Meteorite, the largest meteorite ever found in the state. The meteorite is now on display at the Desert Information Center in

Barstow, California Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Located in the Inland Empire region of California, the population was 25,415 at the 2020 census. Barstow is an important crossroads for the I ...

References

*Adventuring in the California Desert, Lynne Foster,

Sierra Club Books Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentrat ...

, 1987 () *Part of this article incorporates text from the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

, which is in the

Public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. *California Road and Recreation Atlas, 2005, pg.107

External links

*
Wilderness.net: Old Woman Mountains Wilderness Area
{{authority control Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of San Bernardino County, California Bureau of Land Management areas in California