Carrizo Badlands

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View southwest across the Carrizo Badlands from the Wind Caves, in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Carrizo Badlands.jpg
View southwest across the Carrizo Badlands from the Wind Caves, in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The Carrizo Badlands are a landform of badlands that lie within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County, and in the Carrizo Impact Area in western Imperial County, in Southern California. [1]

Geography

The badlands lie south of the Vallecito Mountains and Fish Creek Mountains, and north of the Tierra Blanca Mountains and Coyote Mountains.

The Carrizo Badlands are bisected by the Carrizo Valley, created by the erosion of the badlands by Carrizo Creek, and ending in the Carrizo Wash, 3 miles east of the site of the old Carrizo Creek Station. [1] [2] Vallecito Creek is a major tributary of Carrizo Creek.

Features

One of the features within the Carrizo Badlands are the Mud Caves in Arroyo Tapiado.

Related Research Articles

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park State park in California

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP) is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 585,930 acres (237,120 ha) that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California.

Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness

The Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness is located about 25 miles west of Brawley, California, and southeast of the Vallecito Mountains in the United States. The wilderness is located in the Fish Creek Mountains region in the northern part of the Carrizo Impact Area, which is closed to the public.

Tierra Blanca Mountains

The Tierra Blanca Mountains are located in San Diego County in southern California between the Vallecito Mountains and the In-Ko-Pah Mountains. The range is located to the west of the community of Canebrake and the Carrizo Badlands.

Mud Caves Feature in Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California, United States

The Mud Caves are a popular feature in Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California. The caves, located in the Carrizo Badlands, along the Arroyo Tapiado, were created by water flowing through a thick deposit of silt and are an example of pseudokarst topography. There are at least 22 caves, some up to 1,000 feet (300 m) in length and 80 feet (24 m) in height. Many of the caves are easily accessed.

Coyote Mountains

The Coyote Mountains are a small mountain range in San Diego and Imperial Counties in southern California. The Coyotes form a narrow ESE trending 2 mi (3.2 km) wide range with a length of about 12 mi (19 km). The southeast end turns and forms a 2 mi (3.2 km) north trending "hook". The highest point is Carrizo Mountain on the northeast end with an elevation of 2,408 feet (734 m). Mine Peak at the northwest end of the range has an elevation of 1,850 ft (560 m). Coyote Wash along I-8 along the southeast margin of the range is 100 to 300 feet in elevation. Plaster City lies in the Yuha Desert about 5.5 mi (8.9 km) east of the east end of the range.

Mountain Empire, San Diego Region of the San Diego Metro Area in San Diego County

The Mountain Empire is a rural area in southeastern San Diego County, California. The Mountain Empire subregion consists of the backcountry communities in southeastern San Diego County. The area is also sometimes considered part of the East County region of San Diego County.

Vallecito, San Diego County, California Park in California, United States

Vallecito, in San Diego County, California is an oasis of cienegas and salt grass along Vallecito Creek and a former settlement on the edge of the Colorado Desert in the Vallecito Valley. Its Spanish name is translated as "little valley". Vallecito was located at the apex of the gap in the Carrizo Badlands created by Carrizo Creek and its wash in its lower reach, to which Vallecito Creek is a tributary. The springs of Vallecito, like many in the vicinity, are a product of the faults that run along the base of the Peninsular Ranges to the west.

Palm Spring Station, a former Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach station located at Palm Spring in San Diego County, California. This station built in 1858 by division agent, Warren F. Hall is commemorated by California State Historical Marker Number 639 Palm Spring.

Palm Spring, is a spring in Mesquite Oasis, a desert oasis amidst a mesquite thicket and a few palms, close to Carrizo Creek, within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California.

Carrizo Creek Station was a former stage station of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail now located in Imperial County, California just east of the San Diego County line, it lies within the boundaries of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park just west of the Carrizo Impact Area. Its site is located along the bank of Carrizo Creek.

Oriflamme Canyon is a steep mountain canyon, in San Diego County, California that descends from its head in the Laguna Mountains, at 32°56′41″N116°29′45″W, in an arc northwestward then northeastward to join Rodriguez Canyon at the northwest end of Mason Valley, where Vallecito Wash has its source.

Green Valley, is a valley in the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County, California. The Sweetwater River flows through Green Valley, and has its source at the top of Upper Green Valley.

Carrizo Creek, is a stream that arises in the mountains of San Diego County, California, and terminates in Carrizo Wash in Imperial County, a tributary in turn to San Felipe Creek that terminates in the Salton Sea.

Vallecito Creek is a tributary stream of Carrizo Creek, in San Diego County, California.

San Felipe Creek is a stream in Imperial and San Diego Counties of California. It arises in the Volcan Mountains of San Diego County 33°11′57″N116°37′35″W, and runs eastward, gathering the waters of most of the eastern slope of the mountains and desert of the county before it empties into the Salton Sea. It is probably the last remaining perennial natural desert stream in the Colorado Desert region. In 1974, the San Felipe Creek Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Mason Valley is a valley in San Diego County, California. Mason Valley was named after a settler, James E. Mason who established a ranch in the valley in the later 19th century. The mouth of the valley is at an elevation of 1,995 feet / 608 meters, at the point where the valley narrows into a canyon where the Vallecito Wash continues as Vallecito Creek and passes between the Sawtooth Range and the Vallecito Mountains. The head of Mason Valley is at an elevation of 2550 feet at 33°01′05″N116°28′53″W at the junction of Oriflamme Canyon and Rodriguez Canyon where Vallecito Wash has its source.

Vallecito Wash is a wash part of Vallecito Creek, a tributary stream of Carrizo Creek, in San Diego County, California.

Upper Green Valley is a valley in the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County, California. Is mouth lies at an elevation of 4,163 feet / 1,269 meters. Its head is at 32°59′03″N116°32′01″W, at an elevation of 4,890 feet. The Sweetwater River has its source at the top of Upper Green Valley.

Carrizo Valley is a valley between the Vallecito Mountains and Carrizo Badlands to the north and the Tierra Blanca Mountains, Jacumba Mountains and Coyote Mountains on the south, in San Diego County, California. Its mouth is at an elevation or 623 feet / 190 meters. Its source is at an elevation of 1,315 feet at 32°58′07″N116°18′37″W at the mouth of the narrow Carrizo Canyon where Vallecito Creek passes between the Tierra Blanca Mountains and Vallecito Mountains.

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Carrizo Badlands
  2. USGS topographic maps; Carrizo Mountain, Sweeney Pass, Arroyo Tapiado

Coordinates: 32°51′06″N116°08′15″W / 32.85167°N 116.13750°W / 32.85167; -116.13750