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”Orocopia Mountains Wilderness
The Orocopia Mountains are another of the desert wilderness areas in Riverside County. Designated in 1994 as part of the California Desert Protection Act, this wilderness protects unique plant species and has an interesting geological history.
Continue reading “Orocopia Mountains Wilderness”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”