The Yuha Desert is a section of the
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...
located in the
Imperial Valley
The Imperial Valley ( or ''Valle Imperial'') of Southern California lies in Imperial and Riverside counties, with an urban area centered on the city of El Centro. The Valley is bordered by the Colorado River to the east and, in part, the S ...
of
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 ...
, south of
Interstate 8, west of
El Centro, and north of the
international border.
Unique aspects of the Yuha Desert include the Oyster Shell Beds, De Anza Historical Monument, Crucifixion Thorn Natural Area (named after the
''Castela emoryi''), and the Yuha
geoglyph. It is the homeland of the Kamia, also spelled
Kumeyaay, and may have been used by other Native American groups such as the
Cahuilla,
Quechan, and
Cocopah Native American people. The
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail travels through the Yuha Desert.
The Yuha Basin portion of the Yuha Desert is designated an
Area of Critical Environmental Concern 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 ...
and is managed by the agency as a limited-use area for biologic and archaeological resource conservation. The primary species of concern is the
flat-tailed horned lizard. Off-highway vehicles are limited to signed routes to protect both the flat-tail horned lizard habitat and the archaeological resources including prehistoric campsites and
lithic reduction
In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industrie ...
sites along the former edges of
Lake Cahuilla, as well as sites representing the use of the region within the historic era.
See also
*
List of flora of the Sonoran Desert Region by common name
References
External links
Overland Desert Routes Western Imperial CountyBLM PDF titled "Exploring the Yuha Desert"– DesertUSA
Colorado Desert
Deserts and xeric shrublands in the United States
Deserts of California
Deserts of the Lower Colorado River Valley
Landforms of Imperial County, California
Geography of Baja California
Sonoran Desert
Bureau of Land Management areas in California
Protected areas of Imperial County, California
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