Santa Rosa Wilderness

Santa Rosa Wilderness
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
Location	Riverside County, California
Nearest city	Palm Desert, California
Coordinates	33°30′54″N 116°19′04″W / 33.51500°N 116.31778°W / 33.51500; -116.31778[1]
Area	72,259 acres (292.42 km2)
Established	1984 (California Wilderness Act)
Governing body	U.S. Bureau of Land Management / U.S. Forest Service

The Santa Rosa Wilderness is a 72,259-acre (292.42 km²) wilderness area in Southern California, in the Santa Rosa Mountains of Riverside and San Diego counties, California. It is in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert, above the Coachella Valley and Lower Colorado River Valley regions in a Peninsular Range, between La Quinta to the north and Anza Borrego Desert State Park to the south. The United States Congress established the wilderness in 1984 with the passage of the California Wilderness Act (Public Law 98-425), managed by both the US Forest Service (San Bernardino National Forest, 13,801 acres^[2]) and the Bureau of Land Management (58,458 acres ^[2]). In 2009, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (P.L. 111–11) was signed into law which added more than 2,000 acres (8.1 km²). Most of the Santa Rosa Wilderness is within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.

The Santa Rosa Mountains contain areas of historic and modern cultural significance, such as ancient game trails, roasting pits, milling stations, rock shelters and examples of rock art. Native Americans have identified areas that are currently used for temporary habitation, resource collection and ritual hunting. Evidence of post-colonial era American settlements and mining activities includes quarry sites, mining prospects, irrigation infrastructure and water improvements associated with natural springs.