Idyllwild is an unincorporated mountain community in Riverside County, California, set in the San Jacinto Mountains at an elevation of about 5,400 feet. Together with the adjoining communities of Pine Cove and Fern Valley, it forms the Idyllwild–Pine Cove area of roughly 3,700 residents. The village sits in pine- and cedar-covered terrain between two of Southern California's best-known rock-climbing formations, and it has kept a small, walkable character because its lack of ski infrastructure held large-scale development at bay. The area's history reaches back to bands of Cahuilla people who used the high meadows as a summer refuge from the heat of the lower deserts. Euro-American settlement took shape in the late nineteenth century, when the Strawberry Valley area became a retreat for visitors seeking mountain air; the name Idyllwild is generally credited to Laura Rutledge, who with her husband ran an early sanatorium for patients with respiratory ailments. A historical society and museum preserve that pioneer story today. Idyllwild is best known as a year-round center for the arts and for outdoor recreation. The Idyllwild Arts Academy, a residential college-preparatory arts high school, anchors a broader creative community that includes the Art Alliance of Idyllwild, galleries, live music, and festivals such as Jazz in the Pines. Around the village, the San Bernardino National Forest and Mount San Jacinto State Park offer hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, and horseback riding, including the long trail to San Jacinto Peak. Life here is quiet and community-oriented, drawing a mix of full-time residents, artists, retirees, and second-home owners from Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley. Public school students attend Idyllwild School, a TK–8 campus in the Hemet Unified School District, and travel down the mountain for high school. The community is reached by State Route 243, a winding mountain road roughly two and a half hours east of Los Angeles and about an hour from Palm Springs.