San Jacinto Peak, at 10,834 feet, is the second highest peak in southern California, with a north face that rises over the desert floor to create one of the steepest escarpments in the United States. It also helps create a landscape of extremes, as Mount San Jacinto State Park contains the state parks' highest point and lies within view of the lowest point, the Salton Sea State Recreation Area. This place stands on remnants of the Southern California Batholith, the rocky backbone of the Peninsular Ranges. Hundreds of millions of years ago, two crustal plates collided, and the resulting geological processes melted rock into magma that cooled deep below Earth's surface into the granitic rocks of a batholith. Several million years ago, movement along the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults uplifted the batholith and created the Peninsular Ranges, and erosion by wind and water left its jagged crests and rocky outcrops visible today.