When winter cloaks the mountains with snow or rain, many Californians break out parkas and skis and head for the high country. Others opt for local walks or the gym to keep in shape for spring. A relative few extend their hiking season by heading to that least-visited region of California: its deserts.
Deserts cover over a third of the state, mostly inland areas in the south, with a finger extending north between the eastern Sierra Nevada and the state boundary. Too often considered monotonous “drive-over country”, California’s deserts are actually quite varied and richly reward those who make the effort to know them. Winter temperatures in the south tend to warm, sunny days and cool, clear nights, so “three-season” clothing and equipment are usually adequate for outdoor activities.
Just west of Joshua Tree National Park is Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, a relatively unvisited park holding a true oasis in the desert due to a fault that forces groundwater to the surface. Unlike the smaller and tidier palm oases in the nearby national park and in the Coachella Valley to the south, Big Morongo is a riot of greenery, a veritable jungle covering hundreds of acres. (The entire preserve is about 31,000 acres.) …show more content…
The oases at Big Morongo and nearby Little Morongo Canyons provided a crucial source of water and food, both from the wetlands and from the extensive mesquite groves that surround them. Conflicts between settlers and Indians led to the Morongo band’s removal to a reservation several miles west in 1846, and Morongo Valley’s conversion to cattle ranching. In 1968, the Big Morongo Canyon wetlands and surrounding area was set aside as a wildlife preserve. Today the area is included in the proposed Sand to Snow National Monument. If approved, this monument will protect a swath of land from the edge of the low desert Coachella Valley to the 11,500-foot summit of San Gorgonio
Deserts cover over a third of the state, mostly inland areas in the south, with a finger extending north between the eastern Sierra Nevada and the state boundary. Too often considered monotonous “drive-over country”, California’s deserts are actually quite varied and richly reward those who make the effort to know them. Winter temperatures in the south tend to warm, sunny days and cool, clear nights, so “three-season” clothing and equipment are usually adequate for outdoor activities.
Just west of Joshua Tree National Park is Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, a relatively unvisited park holding a true oasis in the desert due to a fault that forces groundwater to the surface. Unlike the smaller and tidier palm oases in the nearby national park and in the Coachella Valley to the south, Big Morongo is a riot of greenery, a veritable jungle covering hundreds of acres. (The entire preserve is about 31,000 acres.) …show more content…
The oases at Big Morongo and nearby Little Morongo Canyons provided a crucial source of water and food, both from the wetlands and from the extensive mesquite groves that surround them. Conflicts between settlers and Indians led to the Morongo band’s removal to a reservation several miles west in 1846, and Morongo Valley’s conversion to cattle ranching. In 1968, the Big Morongo Canyon wetlands and surrounding area was set aside as a wildlife preserve. Today the area is included in the proposed Sand to Snow National Monument. If approved, this monument will protect a swath of land from the edge of the low desert Coachella Valley to the 11,500-foot summit of San Gorgonio