The El Paso Mountains Wilderness was created in 1994 and now has a total of . All of the wilderness is in the northern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

in eastern

Kern County, California Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County comprise ...

and is managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

. It is located south of

Ridgecrest, California Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS, or China Lake). It was incorporated as a ...

Geography

The wilderness contains numerous reddish-colored

butte __NOTOC__ 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 mea ...

s and dark, uplifted volcanic

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

s dissected by narrow canyons. The highest point and central feature of this wilderness is Black Mountain, , an extinct volcano. Surrounding the mountain is a

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

Flora and fauna

The most spectacular attribute of this area is the abundance of cultural sites. The southern portion of the wilderness is included in the Last Chance Archaeological District and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Wildlife includes raptors,

Mohave ground squirrel The Mohave ground squirrel (''Xerospermophilus mohavensis'') is a species of ground squirrel found only in the Mojave Desert in California. The squirrel was first described in 1886 by Frank Stephens of San Diego. It is listed as a threatened spe ...

, and the

desert tortoise The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii''), is a species of tortoise in the Family (biology), family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave Desert, Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexic ...

. Vegetation primarily consists of

creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...

scrub community with

Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

s on the western side of the mountain.

References

Sources

BLM−Bureau of Land Management: Official El Paso Mountains Wilderness website

Wilderness.net: El Paso Mountains Wilderness
* ''Adventuring in the California Desert''; Lynne Foster;

Sierra Club Books Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentrat ...

; 1987; ()

External links

U.S. Geological Survey Map
at the U.S. Geological Survey Map Website. Retrieved April 13, 2023. Archaeological sites in California Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Wilderness areas of California Bureau of Land Management areas in California Protected areas of Kern County, California Ridgecrest, California 1994 establishments in California Protected areas established in 1994 {{California-protected-area-stub

Geography

Flora and fauna

See also

References

Sources

External links