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.
Unique aspects of the Yuha Desert include the Oyster Shell Beds, De Anza Historical Monument, Crucifixion Thorn Natural Area (named after the Castela emoryi), and the Yuha geoglyph. It is the homeland of the Kamia, also spelled Kumeyaay, and may have been used by other Native American groups such as the Cahuilla, Quechan, and Cocopah Native American people. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail travels through the Yuha Desert. [1]
The Yuha Basin portion of the Yuha Desert is designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management and is managed by the agency as a limited use area for biologic and archaeological resource conservation. [2] The primary species of concern is the flat-tailed horned lizard. Off highway vehicles are limited to signed routes to protect both the flat-tail horned lizard habitat and the archaeological resources including prehistoric campsites and lithic reduction sites along the former edges of Lake Cahuilla, as well as sites representing the use of the region within the historic era. [3]
Seeley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California. Seeley is located 7.5 miles (12 km) west of El Centro. The population was 1,823 at the 2010 census, up from 1,624 in 2000. It is part of the El Centro Metropolitan Area.
The Sonoran Desert is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).
The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of Southern California, in the Southwestern United States.
Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately 7 million acres, including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
The flat-tail horned lizard is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. A species of reptile, it is endemic to the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Its multiple adaptations for camouflage help to minimize its shadow. The species is threatened, with a restricted range under pressure from human activities such as agriculture and development, and is specially protected in the United States.
Anza is a census-designated place located in southwestern Riverside County, California, in the Anza Valley, a semi-arid region at a mean elevation of 3,921 feet (1,195 m) above sea level. It is located 13 miles (21 km) south of Idyllwild, 32 miles (51 km) east-northeast of Temecula, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Palm Springs, and 90 miles (140 km) northeast of San Diego, being traversed by State Route 371. Anza is on the Pacific Crest Trail and the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. The population was 3,075 at the 2020 census.
The Whipple Mountains are located in eastern San Bernardino County, California. They are directly west of the Colorado River, Parker Dam, and Lake Havasu; south of Needles, California; north of Parker, Arizona and Vidal, California; and northeast of Vidal Junction, California.
Plaster City, California is a company town with a large gypsum quarry and plant owned by United States Gypsum (USG) in Imperial County, California. It is located 17 miles (27 km) west of El Centro, at an elevation of 105 feet, a two-hour drive south of Palm Springs, or a 90 minute drive east from San Diego.
The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a national monument in Southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, the northernmost ones of the Peninsular Ranges system. The national monument covers portions of Riverside County, west of the Coachella Valley, approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Sonoran Desert National Monument is south of Goodyear and Buckeye and east of Gila Bend, Arizona. Created by Presidential proclamation on January 17, 2001, the 496,400 acres (200,886 ha) monument is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System. The BLM already managed the lands, however under monument status, the level of protection and preservation of resources is enhanced. Sonoran Desert National Monument protects but a small portion of the Sonoran Desert, which is 120,000 square miles (311,000 km2), and extends well into California and the country of Mexico. The North Maricopa Mountains, South Maricopa Mountains and the Table Top Wildernesses protect the richest regions of desert habitat from development.
Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which established the first conservation ecology mandate for the BLM. The FLPMA mandate directs the BLM to protect important riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species habitats, cultural and archeological resources, as well as unique scenic landscapes that the agency assesses as in need of special management attention.
Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness is a federal wilderness area of 32,136 acres (130.0 km2) in the Sawtooth Mountains in eastern San Diego County, California. It is located in the Colorado Desert, 35 miles (56 km) south of Borrego Springs, near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
The Santa Rosa Wilderness is a 72,259-acre (292.42 km2) wilderness area in Southern California, in the Santa Rosa Mountains of Riverside and San Diego counties, California. It is in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert, above the Coachella Valley and Lower Colorado River Valley regions in a Peninsular Range, between La Quinta to the north and Anza Borrego Desert State Park to the south. The United States Congress established the wilderness in 1984 with the passage of the California Wilderness Act, managed by both the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In 2009, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act was signed into law which added more than 2,000 acres (8.1 km2). Most of the Santa Rosa Wilderness is within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.
The Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is located in the Imperial Valley of California, 40 miles (64 km) north of the Mexican border. Situated at the southern end of the Salton Sea, the refuge protects one of the most important nesting sites and stopovers along the Pacific Flyway. Despite its location in the Colorado Desert, a subdivision of the larger Sonoran Desert, the refuge contains marine, freshwater, wetland, and agricultural habitats which provide sanctuary for hundreds of birds and wetland species, including several that have been listed as endangered or sensitive by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Whipple Mountains Wilderness is a 76,122-acre (30,805 ha) wilderness administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Most of the Whipple Mountains are within the wilderness area. It is located in the northeastern Colorado Desert near the Colorado River. Lake Havasu and Lake Havasu City are 25 miles (40 km) to the North. Earp, California and Parker, Arizona are 20 miles (32 km) to the South. The Parker Dam is 8 miles (13 km) due east.
The fauna of the U.S. state of California may be the most diverse in the United States. Of the lower 48 contiguous states, California has the greatest diversity in climate, terrain, and geology. The state's six life zones are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran ; transition ; and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic zones, comprising California's highest elevations. California's diverse geography gives rise to dozens of ecosystems, each of which has its own native plants and animals. California is a huge state, the third largest in the U.S., and ranges broadly in habitats.
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 in the San Sebastian Marsh 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.
Dos Palmas Preserve is a 14,000-acre (5,700 ha) wildlife preserve in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California, in the United States. The preserve is within the Salt Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It contains a large oasis and wetland habitat, with pools fed both by water seeping from the Coachella Canal and by artesian water from several springs, including the Dos Palmas Spring. Desert fan palms are abundant.
San Gregorio campsite at the Borrego Sink in the Borrego Valley, Borrego Springs, California, in San Diego County, is a California Historical Landmark No. 673 listed on February 16, 1959. The San Gregorio campsite was a desert camp for the Spanish Commander Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition of 1775 and 1776. The expedition passed through the Imperial Valley then through the Colorado Desert, now Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The expedition's goal was to start Spanish missions in California and presidio forts through Las Californias to San Francisco Bay. The expedition route is now the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.
This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2017) |
32°43′N115°50′W / 32.717°N 115.833°W