Garcés-Smith Monument

This is the inland end of the trail marked at the Colorado, seventy-odd miles on: the Mojave road dropped out of the desert, crossed the pass and came down into this valley. The plaque names Father Garces, who came through in March 1776, and Jedediah Smith, who followed in 1826. Neither of them found it. Both were shown the way along a route the Mojave had traded on for generations. It sits on national forest land and needs the Cajon Ranger District's permission to reach.

What the plaque says

The Mohave Indian Trail. Traveled by Fr. Francisco Garcés March, 1776, and Jedediah S. Smith November, 1826.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Gregory — 3.9 mi
  A New Deal dam built by a Redlands orange grower, for the opposite reason to every other lake on this mountain.
• Cajon Pass — 7.0 mi
  The gap the San Andreas tore between two mountain ranges, and the doorway every westbound traveler has used for two centuries.
• Original McDonald's Site — 8.9 mi
  The corner where two brothers invented fast food, now an unofficial museum the corporation has never blessed.
• Lake Arrowhead Village — 9.4 mi
  A reservoir that lost in court and became a resort — and the 1920s village that made its name was burned down on purpose.

More markers nearby

• Mormon Road — 3.5 mi
• Sycamore Grove — 3.9 mi
• The Arrowhead — 6.8 mi
• Stoddard-Waite Monument — 7.6 mi