Soda Mountains Potential Wilderness
 Managing
agency: Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District
Size: Approximately 110,800 acres.
Location: West of I-15 near Baker, in San
Bernardino County.
Description:
- Multicolored canyons beckon hikers with easy access from Interstate 15.
- Cultural sites in Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
- Cronese Lakes provide an oasis for waterfowl and endangered shore birds.
Located just off Interstate 15, the Soda Mountains are a scenic, horseshoe-shaped range that varies from gentle slopes to rugged, highly eroded, jagged ridges. Hikers enjoy ready access to multicolored canyons with steep, rocky walls grading from brown at the base, to red in the middle, to gold at the top.
Amid the dominant creosote scrub are barrel cactus, cholla, yuccas, and the rare Castela emoryi or Crucifixion thorn, a sensitive species. Two intermittent lakes, East Cronese and West Cronese, provide habitat for wintering and migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, including the endangered Yuma clapper rail. The unusual concentrations of water-related birds also make this a choice area for raptors. Desert bighorn sheep are here as well, at times using 65 square miles of the range.
Salt and hunting camp localities used by Chemehuevi Indians are also found here. At Cronese Lakes, a designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern protects some of these resources.
The Soda Mountains are accessible yet little-known, offering outstanding opportunities for hiking and solitude.
For additional information, please contact:
Monica Argandoņa
California Wilderness Coalition
4065 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA 92501
(909) 781-1336
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
