The Chocolate Mountains of California are located in Imperial and Riverside counties in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. The mountains stretch more than 60 miles (100 km) in a northwest to southeast direction, and are located east of the Salton Sea and south and west of the Chuckwalla Mountains and the Colorado River. To the northwest lie the Orocopia Mountains.

Geography

The Chocolate Mountains form the northeast boundary of the Salton Trough extending as a narrow range some southeast from the Orocopia Mountains to the Colorado River valley. The mountains are located about west of the Chocolate Mountains of Arizona, but the two ranges are not connected. The range reaches an elevation of 2,475 feet (754 m) at Mount Barrow, and serves as a drainage divide for the Salton Watershed to the west.

The mountains receive very little rainfall in a normal year, typically 4-6 inches (100 to 150 mm). The predominant natural plants are of the creosote bush–white bursage community, and the mean annual temperature is about to .

Geology

The range is composed of Precambrian basement rocks and Orocopia Schist with Mesozoic granite intrusions.

The range was host to numerous small gold workings in the 19th century with one, the Mesquite Mine to the east, continuing to be active into the 20th century.

Indian Pass Wilderness

The Indian Pass Wilderness Area is to the north with of open space. The Indian Pass Wilderness is a distinctive part of the Chocolate Mountains, a range which extends from south central Riverside County to the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona. Quartz Peak is the highest point in the wilderness capped at . Jagged peaks and spires are sliced by mazes of twisting canyons which carry water from occasional desert cloudbursts into several tree-lined washes. One of these washes passes through the heart of the wilderness area, giving rise to the region's local name, "Julian Wash country." The area's proximity to the Colorado River and the Arizona Desert contribute to the presence of wildlife species not commonly found in the California Desert.

At the southern end of the Chocolate Mountains at elevations from 200 to , the Indian Pass Wilderness preserve is located east of Brawley, California, and is also managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A herd of 25 desert bighorn sheep reside in the wilderness area, along with "the Picacho feral horses," wild burros, and the native and endangered desert tortoise and spotted bat.

See also

  • List of Sonoran Desert wildflowers

References

  • Official Little Picacho Peak Wilderness website
  • BLM Little Picacho Peak Wilderness Map
  • Little Picacho Peak Wilderness Area photographs
  • Official Indian Pass Wilderness website
  • BLM Indian Pass Wilderness Map