San Bernardino Mountains - More SoCal Peaks

Anderson Peak towers over San Bernardino, California - March 1, 2013 

ATSF 6376 W. at San Bernardino in the late '80s.
Anderson Peak and San Gorgonio Mountain in the background.

The San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains are part of California's Transverse Ranges, and are the result of the tectonic forces of the San Andreas Fault. The rocks that compose the San Bernardino Mountains are much older that the mountains themselves with rocks up to 1.7 billion years old. The two ranges are the result of uplifting due to a three way dance between the North American and Pacific Plates, and the San Andreas Fault, with Cajon Pass as the path of the fault. An earlier Miocene version of the San Bernardino mountains were uplifted, only to be largely eroded and replaced by today's Pleistocene era peaks. San Gorgonio Mountain is the seventh most prominent peak in the contiguous 48 states, and  18th overall, with nearby San Jacinto Peak going down as the 17th in the U.S.A  Prominence being a measure of base elevation to summit.  Mt. Baldy, featured in a post below comes out at number 52.

A more oblique view of the peaks from West Colton. Its June 2003, and yet the snow caps linger.