[DaveofCali]

Originally Posted by Boquillas

I have to say- the San Gabriel are tall, bulky mountains, but not particularly striking or unique. Here in Montana there are hundreds of peaks like that-- just no cities in front of them. I agree the Wasatch Range behind SLC is much prettier, closer, and more striking to the visitor than the (often invisible) San Gabriel range. Here's a non-telephoto pic I took from the SLC Airport earlier this year, then a telephoto shot of the same place, and another, much more distant shot of Las Vegas, which shows you the relative height of local ranges.

Those SLC Airport Photos are telephoto, I do plenty of photography in order to be able to say that.

The San Gabriel Valley mountains start at 3,000 ft high and progress higher and higher, till it peaks in Mt. Baldy (Mt. San Antonio) at more than 10,000 ft above sea level, with several peaks at 8,000 ft (the range is at least 55 miles long). Thus, they are pretty imposing, like in Pasadena:

By So Cal Metro


The San Bernardino Mountains, just beside and east of the San Gabriel Mountains, are even bigger and more imposing:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN


http://www.simpsoncity.com/hiking/im...iaP-11-500.jpg