“Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrane.” – John McPhee
If roadcuts are a tool the geologist relies on to learn the story of the land, then faults must be just as good, providing a natural separation of the earth. The San Andreas is the mother of them all. Running over 600 miles from southern California towards the San Francisco Bay, the San Andreas Fault has exposed a lot of rock over the last hundreds of millions of years. The Mecca Hills Wilderness, which was established by Congress in 1994 and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is a great example of rock that has been exposed by this fault.
Lying not far from Palm Springs, the Mecca Hills are a popular hiking destination during cool months. One of the most well-known hikes is through a slot canyon called Ladder Canyon. Several dryfalls in Ladder Canyon can be easily bypassed by a series of semi-permanent ladders that have been installed to assist hikers.
The canyons in the Mecca Hills form a labyrinthine maze through the badlands. The San Andreas Fault has twisted and folded the rocks here (some of which are ~600 million years old) in ways that create a rare and unusual geologic site. Located in the Colorado Desert, you won’t find any Joshua Trees here, but you will find plenty of ironwood, ocotillo, and palo verde. Sometimes bighorn sheep from the neighboring Orocopia Mountains can be found in the Mecca Hills.
Once the weather cools off in the southern California deserts, Mecca Hills Wilderness provides a great place to take a walk into the Precambrian.