The Joshua Tree Wilderness is probably the best known (and most accessible) of Riverside County’s wilderness areas. Joshua Tree National Monument was designated in 1936, and it became a national park in 1994, when the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) was passed. Several laws have added to the Joshua Tree Wilderness, which today comprises about 85% of Joshua Tree National Park; the the entire wilderness is managed by the National Park Service. Continue reading “Joshua Tree 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”