EXPLORE THE MONUMENT
Get to know CHUCKWALLA NATIONAL MONUMENT
Bradshaw Trail National Back Country Byway
The Bradshaw Trail is a historic route used by Indigenous Tribes and later for gold miners from southern California to Arizona that stretches across the monument and is currently popular to explore in four-wheel drive vehicles. The route was originally created and traveled by Native Americans and was utilized by the Cahuilla, Halchidhoma, Maricopa Peoples, and other Indigenous communities. After learning of the trail from Indigenous peoples, William Bradshaw popularized the trail route as an important link between San Bernardino and Los Angeles and the La Paz area Arizona gold mine camps in the 1860s. Originally over 180 miles long, about 50 miles of the trail fall within the national monument.
For more information, visit the Bureau of Land Management.
Corn Springs Campground & Heritage Site
Corn Springs is a popular remote camping site located in the northern portion of the monument in the Chuckwalla Mountains. It is an important oasis for wildlife and migratory birds featuring native California Fan palms and petroglyph rock art. Native California fan palms, which can measure up to 70-feet in height, provide nesting opportunities for birds and bats. Originally inhabited by the Chemehuevi, and other Tribes, for thousands of years, Corn Springs has one of the finest examples of petroglyph rock art in the Colorado Desert dating as far back as 10,000 years. Early miners noticed that Native Americans also grew corn at the spring, inspiring the name. From Corn Springs, visitors can enjoy hiking trails, sightseeing, bird watching, and more.
For more information, visit the Bureau of Land Management.
Painted Canyon - Mecca Hills Area
The Mecca Hills area, known for the popular Painted Canyon hike, includes mazes of steep canyons, world-class geology, and unique wildlife and is beloved by locals from the east Coachella Valley for day visits and hiking, picnicking, camping and stargazing. Box Canyon Road is a non-Wilderness corridor road that is popular for scenic driving and cycling and leads to campsites and trailheads. Located just south of Joshua Tree National Park and northeast of the town of Mecca, the Mecca Hills are a labyrinth, or a maze of narrow canyons carved out by flash flooding along the San Andreas Fault. Some layers of the exposed rock are over 1.5 billion years old and some formations are less than a million years old. The Mecca Aster, a small shrub with purple-blue flowers, is a unique plant that can only be found in the Mecca Hills and Indio Hills.
For more information, visit the Bureau of Land Management.
Meccacopia - Orocopia Mountains Area
To the east of the Mecca Hills Wilderness and the west of the Chuckwalla Mountains, the Orocopia Mountains includes striking canyons that can be dramatically colored, ranging from bright red to dark black. There are a number of popular OHV trails nearby, including the Meccacopia Jeep Trail. The Red Canyon Jeep Trail also winds from Interstate 10 south along the Orocopia Mountains and ends along a large wash at Summit Road. Local wildlife includes the Desert bighorn sheep, desert tortoise, and burro deer. Native plant species include the Desert Ironwood, Ocotillo, and the Orocopia sage and Orocopia Mountains Spurge, both of which are only found in the area.
For more information, visit the Bureau of Land Management.
WWII Training Sites
The California Desert has a rich military history, including sites that were used for training U.S. soldiers in World War II. The U.S Army needed a large and relatively uninhabited location to train troops in desert tank warfare and practice combat maneuvers under conditions similar to those in North Africa and other countries. In 1942, General George Patton established the Desert Training Center (DTC) composed of 18,000 square miles of desert in California, Arizona, and Southern Nevada. The DTC was used to train and prepare more than one million troops in large-scale maneuvers. The Army established Camp Young as the DTC Headquarters in an area south of what is now Joshua Tree National Park. The entirety of what remains of Camp Young lies within the Monument. Also located within the Monument is a 100-foot tall hill in the valley between the Chuckwalla, Orocopia, and Chocolate Mountains that is often referred to as Patton’s Throne or the King’s Throne because it was reportedly used by General Patton as a vantage point to observe troop movement during training. Remnants of the sites including walkways, driveways, concrete structures, tank tracks, and mosaic insignias of different military units can still be found today.
HOW TO VISIT
EXPLORE SAFELY
These public lands are among the hottest and driest places in North America and can be remote and full of extremes. Temperatures and climates can vary significantly with changes in season, elevation, and even time of day. Very hot temperatures and high winds are common and extreme weather like freezing temperatures and flash floods are also possible.
Tips for staying safe in the desert include:
- Avoid visiting during the hottest months which are usually from May/June through August/September.
- Prepare and know your route.
- Don’t hike alone and always tell someone where you are going and when you will return.
- Travel with plenty of water. Experts generally recommend at least 2+ liters per person on a hike and a gallon per person per day in a car.
- Wear layered clothing and sun protection.
- Travel with a full tank of gas.
- And more (see below).
Learn more about visiting the desert safely at Mojave Desert Land Trust, CactusToCloud Institute, and Friends of the Desert Mountains.
RECREATE RESPONSIBLY
Recreating responsibly includes helping to preserve the wildness of the desert’s nature and not disturbing relics of its rich history. Visitors are encouraged to follow the seven Leave No Trace principles:
- Plan ahead and prepare
- Travel and camp on durable surfaces
- Dispose of waste properly
- Leave what you find
- Minimize campfire impacts
- Respect wildlife
- Be considerate of others.
Learn more at Leave No Trace and Respect.Connect.Protect.
VISIT RESPECTFULLY
It is also important for visitors to remember that these landscapes are first and foremost Indigenous homelands, and that they hold cultural values worthy of protection and honor. For Indigenous people, cultural landscapes are sacred and important to their everyday lives. It is our responsibility to respect the region’s interconnected natural and cultural resources, both out of respect to Tribes and for future generations.
Visitors can help preserve cultural lands by recreating responsibly and following Leave No Trace principles. A few other best practices to follow include:
- Before visiting a new area, learn about its history and how to honor the lands that you will experience.
- Approach cultural landscapes with good intent and respect.
- Leave only footsteps – make sure to pack out all of your trash.
- Please keep dogs leashed and pick up after them, as this helps protect the health and wellbeing of wildlife.
- Do not vandalize or disturb cultural sites.
- Stay on designated trails to prevent soil erosion.
- Look but don’t touch archaeological sites and artifacts. View them from afar.
- Leave any cultural objects and artifacts where they are found.
- Consider skipping the ‘geotag’ on social media, which can draw visitors who aren’t informed about the sensitivity of these sites.
- Please do not build cairns.