San Ysidro Mountains


The San Ysidro Mountains are a mountain range in southern San Diego County, California. The range extends for a short distance into Baja California. The San Ysidro Mountains are part of the Peninsular Ranges System.
The highest point of the range is Otay Mountain, elevation. The majority of the range is included in the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area.

Flora

The native vegetation of the San Ysidro Mountains represents the coastal sage scrub of the California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion ; and plants of the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The San Ysidro Mountains are one of the few locations the rare Tecate Cypress is found. This tree was once abundant in the higher elevations of the range as well as in its canyons. The San Ysidro Mountains were deforested of living foliage by wildfires in 2003 and 2007. Cupressus forbesii is a fire ecology dependent species, and there has been some evidence of regrowth starting.