The

Chuckwalla Chuckwallas are lizards found primarily in arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Some are found on coastal islands. The six species of chuckwallas are all placed within the genus ''Sauromalus''; they are part of th ...

Mountains are a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

range in the transition zone between the Colorado Desert—

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

and the

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 ...

, climatically and vegetationally, in

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Uni ...

of southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Geography

The range spans about , running in a generally northwest-southeast direction. It is bordered to the north by Interstate 10 and the town of Desert Center, and to the south by the

Bradshaw Trail Today's Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route in the western Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is a remnant of the much longer Bradshaw Road, also known as the Road to La Paz, or Gold Road, established in 1862 by William D. ...

and the

Chocolate Mountains The Chocolate Mountains of California are located in Imperial and Riverside counties in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. The mountains stretch more than 60 miles (100 km) in a northwest to southeast direction, and are located ea ...

Aerial Gunnery Range. The highest point is Black Butte, elevation . The Chuckwalla Range is divided from the Little Chuckwalla Range by Graham Pass. The

Orocopia Mountains The Orocopia Mountains are located in Riverside County in southern California, United States, east of the Coachella Valley, west of the Chuckwalla Mountains, and south of Interstate 10 in the Colorado Desert. The range lies in an east-west dire ...

are to the west, and

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to the Mojave Desert. Origin ...

is to the northwest.

Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Area

Most of the mountains were designated by the Bureau of Land Management as th
Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Area
in 1994. Motorized travel is allowed only on "cherry-stemmed" established roads. The Chuckwalla Mountains, near the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...

, rise like an island from a vast sea of sand and rock; within the walls of this "rock fortress" is a variety of landforms, textures, and colors. They include steep-walled canyons, inland valleys, large and small washes, isolated rock outcrops, and panoramic expanses of desert.

Flora and fauna

The Chuckwalla Mountains are in the Colorado Desert section of the

, adjacent to the Lower Colorado River Valley region. Plants include ocotillo, cholla, yucca, creosote, and barrel and foxtail cacti. On the southern flank of the range lies the Chuckwalla Bench bajada region, an

Area of Critical Environmental Concern 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 (F ...

, as it is frequented by the threatened

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 ...

. Also common in the area are the

rosy boa ''Lichanura'', the rosy boas, are a genus of snakes in the family Boidae. They are distributed across the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, ...

kangaroo rat Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed t ...

, and the large lizard, after which the mountains are named - the

chuckwalla Chuckwallas are lizards found primarily in arid regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Some are found on coastal islands. The six species of chuckwallas are all placed within the genus ''Sauromalus''; they are part of th ...

. Other wildlife includes bighorn sheep, burro deer, raptors, snakes, coyotes, and foxes. In the Chuckwalla Mountains, naturalist Edmund C. Jaeger discovered the hibernating

common poorwill The common poorwill (''Phalaenoptilus nuttallii'') is a nocturnal bird of the family Caprimulgidae, the nightjars. It is found from British Columbia and southeastern Alberta, through the western United States to northern Mexico. The bird's habi ...

. (After his death in 1983, Jaeger's cremated remains were scattered in the same canyon.) The location is now preserved as the Edmund C. Jaeger Nature Sanctuary.

History

The Chuckwalla Mountains have had many visitors over the millennia, as they are situated near heavily traveled east-west routes and feature several sources of water, the most prominent being

Corn Springs Corn Springs is a palm oasis situated in the Chuckwalla Mountains of the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California, United States, seventeen miles southeast of Desert Center. Native Americans relied on the springs, and they engraved m ...

. Several successful mines have been dug, including the Red Cloud, Aztec, and Granite.

References

External links

Official Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Area website

Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness Map
{{authority control Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of the Colorado Desert Mountain ranges of Riverside County, California Mountain ranges of Southern California Bureau of Land Management areas in California Protected areas of Riverside County, California Protected areas of the Colorado Desert