Chuckwalla Valley


The Chuckwalla Valley is a large valley in eastern Riverside County, California, named for a large lizard, the chuckwalla found in the arid Southwestern United States deserts.
The region of the valley in southeast California, is the low elevation section of the Mojave Desert transitioning into the Colorado Desert, the northwest extension of the Sonoran Desert. The region is notable for valleys containing bajadas, sand dunes, and intermittent, dry, or saline lakes. Chuckwalla Valley contains Ford Lake in the east-southeast; Palen Lake occurs in the center-northwest, at the south terminus of the smaller, north-south Palen Valley.
The south end of the valley expands slightly northwest-by-southeast, and contains Danby Dry Lake, a 13-mi