"**NOTE**- This area was impacted by the 2015 Lake Fire. As of 2016, the trail remains closed. Check with the Mill Creek Ranger Station at 909-382-2882 to determine if the trail has reopened. The eastern end of the San Gorgonio Wilderness drops steeply toward the desert.

Draining the 10,000- and 11,000-foot peaks of this eastern high country are the three forks of the Whitewater River, tumbling streams that through the ages have carved deep, V-shaped gorges from the high mountains down into arid Coachella Valley, where the spent waters sink into the desert sands and the river becomes a broad, gravelly wash. This lower part of the river is the Whitewater known to most people, drab and unimpressive. But the high Whitewater reveals a different character; it is a rugged, isolated wilderness, even today seldom trod by man. Here dwell Nelson bighorn sheep, the largest herds of these noble animals in the San Bernardino Mountains."

--John W. Robinson with David Money Harris, 100 Hikes in Southern California: San Bernardino Mountain Trails (Wilderness Press).