The Rice Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

of the southeastern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...

, located within

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Uni ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Geography

Rice Valley is a mostly

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

valley filled with bajadas from neighboring mountain ranges draining into Rice Dry Lake, and

sand dune 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, f ...

fields formed by northwest and westerly winds. In the non-endorheic southeast region of Rice Valley the small drainage named Big Wash seasonally flows out between the

Big Maria Mountains The Big Maria Mountains are located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of California, near the Colorado River and Arizona. The range lies between Blythe and Vidal, and west of U.S. Route 95 in California and east of Midland. The mountain ...

on the south, and the West Riverside Mountains on the north, to its mouth on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

on the west side 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 ...

. The endorheic Ward Valley, adjacent on the northwest, has

Danby Dry Lake Danby Lake (also known as Danby Dry Lake) is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, northwest of Blythe. The lake is approximately long and at its widest point. See also * List of lakes in California The ...

as its low point. Southwest across neighboring mountain ranges are the endorheic Palen Valley with Palen Dry Lake as its lowpoint, and Chuckwalla Valley with Ford Dry Lake as its lowpoint.

California State Route 62 State Route 62 (SR 62) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that cuts across the Little San Bernardino Mountains in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It runs from Interstate 10 near White Water to the Arizona state line, pa ...

is an east/west highway passing through the valley.

Rice Valley Wilderness Area

The Rice Valley Wilderness Area is within Rice Valley, managed by the Bureau of Land Management-BLM. The

Big Maria Mountains Wilderness The Big Maria Mountains are located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of California, near the Colorado River and Arizona. The range lies between Blythe and Vidal, and west of U.S. Route 95 in California and east of Midland. The mountain ...

Area is adjacent on the southeast.

History

The

Rice Army Airfield Rice Army Air Field (also known as Rice Air Base or Rice AAF) is an abandoned World War II airfield in Rice Valley of the southern Mojave Desert, located east-southeast of the community of Rice, California, Rice. The airfield is located in Rive ...

is an abandoned World War II airfield of the

Desert Training Center The Desert Training Center (DTC), also known as California–Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), was a World War II training facility established in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert, largely in Southern California and Western Arizona in 1942. It ...

in the valley. It was the proposed site of the

Rice Solar Energy Project The Rice Solar Energy Project was a 150 MW concentrating solar power facility project proposed for Rice Valley in the southern Mojave Desert, within Riverside County in southern California. It was put on indefinite hold in 2014. Description Pr ...

, put on indefinite hold in 2014. The Desert Sun: "Developer puts Rice large-scale solar project on indefinite hold"
by Sammy Roth, 3 October 2014. The former Rice Shoe Tree was located in

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

, a former town around a

Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

siding in the valley. The Shoe Tree burned down in 2003, and was 'replaced' by the present day 'Rice Shoe Garden' along a fence.

References

External links

*{{commonscat-inline, Rice Valley (California) Valleys of the Mojave Desert Tributary valleys of the Lower Colorado River Valley Valleys of Riverside County, California Endorheic basins of the United States Protected areas of the Mojave Desert