| Yuha Buttes | |
|---|---|
  location of Yuha Buttes in California | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 93 m (305 ft) |
| Geography | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | Imperial County |
| Range coordinates | 32°44′14.217″N115°51′2.027″W / 32.73728250°N 115.85056306°W Coordinates: 32°44′14.217″N115°51′2.027″W / 32.73728250°N 115.85056306°W |
| Topo map | USGS Yuha Basin |
The Yuha Buttes are a group of buttes in the Lower Colorado River Valley, in southern Imperial County, California. [1]
In geomorphology, a butte is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word "butte" comes from a French word meaning "small hill"; its use is prevalent in the Western United States, including the southwest where "mesa" is used for the larger landform. Because of their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently landmarks in plains and mountainous areas. In differentiating mesas and buttes, geographers use the rule of thumb that a mesa has a top that is wider than its height, while a butte has a top that is narrower than its height.
The Lower Colorado River Valley ("LCRV") is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, between the states of Baja California and Sonora. This north–south stretch of the Colorado River forms the border between the U.S. states of California/Arizona and Nevada/Arizona, and between the Mexican states of Baja California/Sonora.
Imperial County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 174,528. The county seat is El Centro. Established in 1907, it was the last county to be formed in California.
The buttes are high points along a pair of en echelon northeast trending ridges in the Yuha Desert 6.5 miles (10.5 km) north of the border about 21 miles (34 km) west of Calexico. The highest point has an elevation of 340 feet (100 m) which is 100 to 250 feet above the surrounding desert. Sunrise Butte (elevation 387 ft.) lies 3.5 miles south and rises above California State Route 98, the Yuha Cutoff. [2]
The Yuha Desert is a section of the Sonoran Desert located in the Imperial Valley of California; south of Interstate 8, west of El Centro, and north of the international border.
Calexico is a city in Imperial County, California. The population was 38,572 at the 2010 census, up from 27,109 at the 2000 census. Calexico is about 122 miles (196 km) east of San Diego and 62 miles (100 km) west of Yuma, Arizona. The name of the city is a portmanteau of California and Mexico, which, like that of its adjacent sister city of Mexicali, emphasizes its identity as a border city.
State Route 98 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It is a loop of Interstate 8 (I-8) running west to east south of the Interstate through the border city of Calexico. It passes through the city of Calexico and ends east of Holtville. The highway was added to the state highway system in 1933, and signed as Route 98 by 1938. The highway was paved and rerouted to its current path during the 1950s.
