The Big Maria Mountains are just north of Blythe, California and run parallel to the Colorado River. From the high point of the range, you might think you could throw a rock and hit Arizona. Two Wildernesses protect the range: the Big Maria Mountains Wilderness and the Rice Valley Wilderness. I enjoyed some socially-distanced time in the Big Maria Mountain Wilderness at the end of 2020–a peaceful end to a very crazy year.
Continue reading “Big Maria Mountains Wilderness”Little Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness
Contrary to their name, the Little Chuckwalla Mountains certainly don’t lack for big views. You won’t find a lack of imposing topography, any water, and you’re unlikely to run into anyone else out there, hardly making them the little sibling of the Chuckwalla Mountains to the west. If you’re looking for solitude in a rugged desert landscape, the Little Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness may be for you.
Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness
To the east of the Mecca Hills Wilderness and southeast of Joshua Tree National Park lie the Chuckwalla Mountains. The Chuckwallas are more or less continuous with the Little Chuckwalla Mountains; together these ranges form an imposing range of mountains separating the Interstate-10 corridor from desert areas further south. Despite their proximity to the heavily traveled Interstate-10, the Chuckwallas carry with them an almost certainty of solitude and quiet.
Mecca Hills Wilderness
“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. Continue reading “Mecca Hills Wilderness”