File:Providence Mountains, Mojave National Preserve, California (15470416307).jpg

The Providence Mountains are found in the eastern Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, U.S. The range reaches an elevation of 7,162 feet (2,183 m) at Edgar Peak and is home to the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, and the Mojave National Preserve.

The Providence Mountains are north of Interstate 40. The New York Mountains are adjacent to the northeast. The Clipper Mountains are to the southeast, and the Granite Mountains, Pisgah Crater and the Bullion Mountains are to the southwest. The Providence Mountains lie southeast of the small community of Kelso, east of Ludlow, and northwest of Essex and Goffs.

Vegetation on the lower parts of the mountains is xeric shrublands scrub habitat, composed of Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), California Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus), Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia), and Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera).

The habitat dramatically shifts with elevations above 4000 feet to a sky island where numerous animals and plants flourish in the added moisture caught by the mountains. The plant habitat includes forests of Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and California Juniper (Juniperus californica), and remnant chaparral and woodlands with Oaks (Quercus turbinella) and Manzanita in these higher parts of the mountains. Mitchell Caverns is home to two endemic species of insects, found nowhere else.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Mountains