The San Jacinto Mountains (Avii Hanupach in Mojave) are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for one of the first Black Friars, Saint Hyacinth (San Jacinto in Spanish), who is a popular patron in Latin America. Geography The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The San Jacinto Mountains are the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges, which run from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. The highest peak in the range is San Jacinto Peak (3,302 m; 10,834 ft), and the range is also a Great Basin Divide landform for the Salton Watershed to the east. The Coachella Valley stretches along the eastern side of the range, including the cities of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. San Gorgonio Pass separates the range from Mount San Gorgonio to the north. The western slope holds the community of Idyllwild. The range is the eastern boundary of the San Jacinto Valley, location of Hemet; it also marks the eastern edge of the fast-growing Inland Empire region and Greater Los Angeles as a whole. Much of the range is embraced by the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument created in 2000. Mount San Jacinto State Park is located along the flank of San Jacinto Peak. Part of the eastern flank of the range is located within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. In 1990, the California Legislature created the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy to protect the mountains surrounding the valley. Geology The range is a fault block of granitic rocks squeezed between the San Jacinto fault on the west and the San Andreas fault system on the east. The fault scarp on the northern and eastern side is one of the most abrupt in North America, going from sea level to 10,000 feet in a few miles. The height and steepness of the range points out that the San Jacinto fault and San Andreas fault are very active and very capable of producing major earthquakes (well in excess of magnitude 7). The last massive quake struck the southern segment of the San Andreas-San Jacinto fault complex more than 200 years ago making another major earthquake likely but not currently possible to predict. Rock slides from the range are possible during major earthquakes in the