Cadiz Dunes Wilderness is a protected

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally ...

in the

Mojave Trails National Monument Mojave Trails National Monument is a large U.S. National Monument located in the state of California between Interstate 15, Interstates 15 and Interstate 40, 40. The park was created to preserve a wide variety of geological and cultural features i ...

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

. Established in 1994 by the U.S. Congress, the area is managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

. This wilderness area is north of

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, US National Park located in southeastern California, straddling north-central Riverside County, California, Riverside County and part of southern San Bernardino County, ...

, Sheephole Valley Wilderness lies to the west, Old Woman Mountains Wilderness to the east. The

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

of Cadiz Dunes were formed by blowing sands from the Cadiz

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa (), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkalin ...

, all located in the Cadiz Valley between the Calumet Mountains and the Old Woman Mountains. The ecology is typical of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

with wildlife that includes

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

, black-tailed jackrabbits,

ground squirrels Ground squirrels are rodents of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) that generally live on the ground or in burrows, rather than in trees like the tree squirrels. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones ar ...

kangaroo rats Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed thi ...

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

, roadrunners, and

rattlesnakes Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera '' Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small an ...

. The area is known for a brilliant display of springtime desert wildflowers including the Borrego milkvetch.Cadiz Dunes Wilderness
- Wilderness Connect

References

{{reflist

External links

Cadiz Dunes
- SummitPost.org
U.S. Geological Survey Map
at the U.S. Geological Survey Map Website. Retrieved March 30, 2023. IUCN Category Ib Wilderness areas of California Protected areas of San Bernardino County, California Protected areas established in 1994 1994 establishments in California

See also

References

External links