Reserve

Staff

and

Contacts

Mailing Address:

University of California James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve

PO Box 1775

20950 HWY 243 at Lake Fulmor

Idyllwild, California 92549

951-659-3811

fax: 951-659-0553

Michael Hamilton, Ph.D. Resident Director

Becca Fenwick, Assistant Director

Kevin Browne, NRS Information Manager

Michael Taggart, Facility Manager / Sr. Development Engineer

Tom Unwin, Engineering Technician

Taylor Jeffrey, Sr. Building Maintenance Worker

John Rotenberry, Ph.D. UCR Campus NRS Director

 Riverside County, CA, 13 km (9 miles) north of Idyllwild on State Highway 243; 80 km (50 miles) east of Riverside campus.

Directions from UCR. Take Highway 60 east until it merges with Interstate 10. Continue for about five miles to the 8th Street exit. Turn right on 8th Street and continue a short distance to the first stop sign. Turn left on Lincoln until the next stop sign (approximately 1/2 mile). Turn right on San Gorgonio Avenue (State Highway 243) and once the road begins climbing the mountain grade continue for approximately 15 miles. When you get to Lake Fulmor Picnic Area (US Forest Service), turn left into the handicap parking lot (this is across the street from the main parking area). Pull up to the gate with the sign that says "ROAD CLOSED" and unlock the gate using the combination that has been provided to you in advance. We change the lock combination frequently so call or email before your visit. Unlock the gate and drive forward, then lock the gate behind you. Continue on the uneven dirt road until you reach a second locked gate constructed out of chain link fence. The same combination applies to this gate. Again, please lock the gate behind you. Continue to the end of the road (about 1/4 mile) and check in at the Trailfinders Lodge.

Google Maps Link to our location at Lake Fulmor, 9 miles north of Idyllwild, California

Overnight accommodations at Trailfinders Lodge include semi-private dormitory rooms, communal bathrooms with showers, kitchen with cooking supplies, desks, small museum with herbarium and collections, wireless Internet access within all our buildings and many outdoor areas, and access to Reserve databases.

University of California students, faculty, staff, $5 per night

Other academic users, $7 per night

Professional (agency, private, or able to pay), $15 per night

Day use fees: none, unless you need to use the Trailfinder Lodge then fees are equivalent to one night occupancy per person

A $50 fee per day will be charged for no-shows or cancellations within 24 hours of expected arrival.

The Reserve is located in a remote wilderness setting, surrounded entirely by the San Bernardino National Forest. The nearest services are 7 miles away. There are no public utilities except for telephone, we produce our own electricity using solar photovoltaics and generator. There is also a well on site with 5,000 gallons of water storage. Therefore power, heating, and water are very limited and require constant conservation by our users.

Trailfinder Lodge Lab-dormitory complex accommodates 25 persons in six bedrooms; great room for dining and meetings; kitchen with four burner stove and two refrigerators; 2 bathrooms with showers; wood stove and gas heating; campfire ring, outdoor barbecues, tent camping area can accommodate 10 persons; weather station; remote sensing lab and databases; vertebrate study skins, herbarium, insect collection; workshop; and trail system.

Resident staff lives at on-site, and are available for assistance. Roads are plowed during the winter, but we highly recommend calling ahead for road conditions. The California Highway Patrol requires that you always carry snow chains during the winter months.

We offer on-line access to multiple micro-climate and reference weather stations, video feeds from cameras situated on towers and inside bird houses, fixed and mobile sensor platforms for soils, aquatic and above ground measurements of a variety of ecological processes.

We have extensive geospatial data sets in Arcview and Arc/Info data formats, including topographic, vegetative, and land use thematic coverages for the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountain Ranges. Annotated biodiversity lists by occurrence, investigator, and bibliographic citations. Aerial photography and photomonitoring records from 1940's to present. Bird banding station records since 1979, and maintained and monitored blue bird boxes since early 1980's. 70 small vertebrate pit fall traps are in place with mark and recapture data for reptiles and amphibians collected since 1996.