The McCoy Mountains are located in southeastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The southeast terminus of the range lies adjacent the western edge of the

Parker Valley The Parker Valley is located along the Lower Colorado River within the Lower Colorado River Valley region, in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California. Its natural habitats are within the Sonoran Desert (Arizona) and Colorado Desert (Cal ...

in a southern stretch of the

Lower Colorado River Valley The Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV) is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of ...

corridor.

Geography

The range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction east of the Palen Mountains and south of the

Little Maria Mountains The Little Maria Mountains are located in southeastern California in the United States. The range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction east of the Palen Mountains and west of the Big Maria Mountains. The mountain range is approximately 15 ...

. The mountain range is approximately 18 miles long and is located just north of

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

, and about seven miles northeast of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. The mountains reach an elevation of 2,054 feet above sea level at McCoy Peak, at the southern end of the range. Downtown

Blythe, California Blythe () is a city in eastern Riverside County, California, United States. It is in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River, approximatel ...

is about 10 miles to the east.

Palen/McCoy Wilderness Area

The McCoy Mountains are in the Palen/McCoy Wilderness Area, 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 ...

. Within the Palen-McCoy Wilderness are the Granite, McCoy, Palen, Little Maria, and Arica Mountains, which are five distinct mountain ranges separated by broad sloping

Alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

s-baJadas. Because this large area incorporates so many major geological features, the diversity of vegetation and

landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement ...

s is exceptional. The desert wash woodland found here provides food and cover for burro deer, coyote,

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

, gray fox, and

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

Desert pavement A desert pavement, also called reg (in western Sahara), serir (in eastern Sahara), gibber (in Australia), or saï (in central Asia) is a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and ...

, bajadas, interior valleys, canyons, dense ironwood forests, canyons and rugged peaks form a constantly changing landscape pattern. . accessed 6/24/2010 . BLM

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

sourced

External links

*Official
Palen-McCoy Wilderness Area website
'
BLM Palen-McCoy Wilderness Map

References

* {{authority control Mountain ranges of Riverside County, California Protected areas of Riverside County, California Mountain ranges of the Colorado Desert Protected areas of the Colorado Desert Mountain ranges of the Lower Colorado River Valley Wilderness areas within the Lower Colorado River Valley Bureau of Land Management areas in California Blythe, California

Geography

Palen/McCoy Wilderness Area

See also

External links

References