Get to Know the Proposed Chuckwalla National Monument: Painted Canyon and Mecca Hills Area
By Protect Chuckwalla National Monument
The proposed monument includes the popular Mecca Hills area, known for its Painted Canyon hike. These lands are beloved by locals from the east Coachella Valley for hiking, picnicking, camping and stargazing.
The Mecca Hills Wilderness is located just south of Joshua Tree National Park and northeast of the town of Mecca, in the western half of the proposed national monument. The Mecca Hills Wilderness is an area of 26,242 acres that has been preserved as Wilderness since 1994. They include a maze of narrow, steep canyons carved out by flash flooding events along the San Andreas Fault. It is considered by scientists to be a world-class geological area. Some layers of the exposed rock are over 1.5 billion years old and some formations are less than a million years old— considered relatively young and reflecting geological processes that are recent and ongoing.
Painted Canyon is culturally significant and important to Indigenous peoples in the region. It is also a popular hiking destination, and runs through the middle of the Wilderness. Sandy washes criss-cross the wilderness, and sources of water for wildlife like desert bighorn sheep can be found at Sheep Hole Oasis and Hidden Spring, both used by Cahuilla peoples. The area is home to spotted bats, desert tortoises, and prairie falcons. The Mecca Aster, a small shrub with purple-blue flowers, can only be found in the Mecca Hills and Indio Hills.
Box Canyon Road is a non-Wilderness corridor road that extends from the town of Mecca to near Camp Young and the South Joshua Tree National Park entrance along Interstate 10. The route is popular for scenic driving and cycling and leads to many local recreation activities such as campsites and trailheads for well-known hikes.
When visiting the desert, it is key to be prepared so you can visit safely, responsibly, and respectfully.
For more information on the are visit: https://www.blm.gov/visit/mecca-hills-wilderness
Off-highway vehicle routes can be found here.
MORE RELATED NEWS
Tribal Leaders, Elected Officials, Business Owners, and Local Residents Celebrate the One-Year Anniversary of Chuckwalla National Monument
This January marks the one-year anniversary of the Chuckwalla National Monument, a victory celebrated region-wide after years of advocacy from local Tribes and community members.
Five Native tribes are coming together to protect a California cultural landscape
Five California tribes have established an intertribal commission to co-manage Chuckwalla National Monument, marking a historic step toward tribal sovereignty over sacred desert lands.
Assemblymembers Jeff Gonzalez and Greg Wallis: Why Chuckwalla National Monument Matters
We want to be clear: Chuckwalla National Monument enjoys strong, bipartisan support. Tribal leaders, veterans, business owners, and local elected officials have joined together to back this effort, and the voices of many of our constituents —who have written, called, and spoken up— deserve to be heard.