SF Gate: The race to save endangered mountain lions in the Calif. desert
If you’ve ever driven to Joshua Tree from Los Angeles, you’re probably familiar with state Route 62. The highway first branches off Interstate 10 near Desert Hot Springs and climbs the steep Morongo Grade, narrowly carved out between the San Bernardino Mountains and Little San Bernardino Mountains.
The grade spits drivers out in the tiny unincorporated town of Morongo Valley, and from there the highway serves as the de facto main street for high desert communities, from Yucca Valley to Twentynine Palms, before continuing onward to the Arizona border. There’s also a second steep grade, the Yucca Grade, between Morongo Valley and Yucca Valley.
All of that — the speeding cars, especially — leaves very little room for mountain lions to cross the road. Before state Route 62 was built, “there was seamless 95-mile-long habitat connectivity between the San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino mountain ranges, extending from the I-10 south of Joshua Tree National Park to the I-15 near the Cajon Pass,” according to the Mojave Desert Land Trust.