Vidal Valley is a 20-mile (32 km) long valley in the far eastern Colorado Desert bordering the Colorado River . Most of the valley is in eastern San Bernardino County , California , but the outfall on the Colorado River is in northeast Riverside County . Vidal Valley forms the large border of the south side of the east-west block of the Whipple Mountains massif , the landform that forces the Colorado to flow southeast, then back southwest. The southeast exit of the valley into Parker Valley on the Colorado River skirts the north end of the Riverside Mountains (see photo). The Colorado River Aqueduct crosses the midpoint of the valley at Vidal Junction, California . The Vidal Valley also lies due east of the Danby Dry Lake landform.
21-753: Vidal Valley is bordered by the Whipple Mountains on the northeast and the Riverside Mountains on the south. The valley drains mostly northwest-to-southeast, with its outfall into a southwest-flowing section of the Colorado River. The north of the valley is bordered on the west by the Turtle Mountains , and the south side of the Chemehuevi Valley . The center point of the valley, both east-west and north-south
42-460: A large wash , (Whipple Wash), which bisects the entire range. These linear ridges mark the tops of tilted crustal blocks lying in the hanging wall of an extensive detachment fault , and the range as a whole comprises one of the best exposed and most studied metamorphic core complexes in the world. In the western half of the range, the hanging wall has been eroded away completely, leaving antiformally upwarped lower-crustal mylonites exposed at
63-651: A lieutenant in the US Army who surveyed the region in the 1840s, and later died in Chancellorsville in the Civil War. The range stretches approximately 25 miles (40 km) in an east-west direction, and reaches an elevation of 2,695 feet (821 m) at Savahia Peak at the western end. The Whipple Mountains are home to many mines including the Independence Mine and Bessie Mine. The range lies in
84-549: Is a desert mountain range, in the Lower Colorado River Valley region, in southeastern San Bernardino County , California . The Mopah Range are located directly adjacent to and linked with the larger Turtle Mountains Range. They are in the northern Colorado Desert region of the Sonoran Desert , and the southern reach of Mojave Desert . The Colorado River and Whipple Mountains are to
105-499: Is a landmark known as Mexican Hat. The area has numerous springs and seeps . The Mopahs are considered part of the greater Lower Colorado River Valley region. The Mopah Range is located in an ecological transition zone between the Mojave Desert ( High Desert ) and Colorado Desert region of the Sonoran Desert ( Low Desert ) and therefore contains a high diversity of plant and animal species. The Turtle Mountain range
126-579: Is a northern or southern 'delimiter of occurrence' for some species; for example the endangered California fan palm ( Washingtonia filifera ) encounters the northern limit of its range in the Mopah- Turtle Mountains . Dominate vegetation in the Turtle Mountains Wilderness Area consists of the creosote bush-bur sage with creosote bush ( Larrea tridentata ) and the palo verde-cactus shrub ecosystems with
147-482: Is at Vidal Junction located at U.S. Route 95 in California and California State Route 62 . Vidal Junction is located at 34°11′20″N 114°34′26″W / 34.18889°N 114.57389°W / 34.18889; -114.57389 . The Vidal Valley is in the climate , ecoregion , and plant community transition zone to the higher Mojave Desert on the north from the lower-elevation Colorado Desert on
168-604: The Colorado Desert , the northwestern section of the Sonoran Desert , and in the Lower Colorado River Valley region. The Turtle Mountains are to the west, the Mopah Range adjacent on the south, and the Chemehuevi Mountains upriver to the north. Whipple Peak is the highest point in the range at an elevation of 4,131 ft; it lies west of the range's center, and Whipple Wash flows northeast from
189-545: The Colorado River , Parker Dam , and Lake Havasu ; south of Needles, California ; north of Parker, Arizona and Vidal, California ; and northeast of Vidal Junction, California . The mountain forms a major direction change of the north-south Colorado River as it changes directions to southeast, then southwest around the eastern perimeter of the Whipple Mountains. The highest point of the mountains, and
210-668: The Sierra Nevada block and the Colorado Plateau during the early and middle Miocene . Upwards of 40 km of extension occurred in a region now 70 to 100 km across. The Whipples are part of the Maria fold and thrust belt . The Mojave people , Cahuilla people , Quechan , and other Native American cultural tribes and groups lived in and traveled through the Whipples for thousands of years. Francisco Garcés ,
231-508: The Whipple Mountains Wilderness is Whipple Mountain at 4,131 feet (1,259 m). The western portion of the mountain range has pale green formations, differing from the eastern, steeply carved and striking brick-red volcanics. Landforms are diverse and range from valley floors and washes to steep-walled canyons, domed peaks, natural bridges, and eroded spires. The mountains were named after Amiel Weeks Whipple ,
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#1732791541571252-465: The palo verde tree ( Parkinsonia microphylla ). In the washes, Colorado/Sonoran microphylla woodlands can be found. These woodlands include such things as smoke tree ( Psorothamnus spinosus ), honey mesquite ( Prosopis velutina ), and catclaw ( Acacia greggii ). Wildlife species include desert bighorn sheep , coyote, black-tailed jackrabbits , ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, quail, roadrunners , golden eagles , prairie falcons , rattlesnakes ,
273-717: The State of California or private land owners. Access to these areas is not by the BLM, but the other owners and agencies. The majority of the Whipple Range lies within the Whipple Mountains Wilderness , administered by the Needles Field office of the United States Bureau of Land Management . The wilderness covers approximately 76,122 acres (30,805 ha) of the range. Mopah Range The Mopah Range
294-452: The detachment surface. A number of high-angle normal faults accommodating tilting and extension within the hanging wall are easily visible as well. The Whipple detachment fault is part of a larger complex of shallow, east dipping normal faults extending from the Whipples northward to the southern tip of Nevada , where a transition occurs to shallow, westward dipping normal faults. The entire region accommodated major crustal extension between
315-570: The east, and the Iron Mountains to the west. Vidal Junction, California is to the southeast, and the Colorado River Aqueduct passes to the south. The Mopah Range is part of the Turtle Mountains Wilderness Area. The Mopahs include broad bajadas to highly eroded volcanic peaks, spires, and cliffs. The Mopah Range contains the two signature Mopah Peaks, which are rhyodactic or volcanic plugs . The northernmost peak
336-512: The explorer, missionary, and regional "peacemaker" based at Mission San Xavier del Bac had initiated expeditions along the river and surrounding terrain through and past the Whipples in the early 1770s. In 1774 he joined the famous Juan Bautista de Anza Las Californias Expedition from "mainland New Spain to the "new to them" Alta California . They passed through the range en route to the Needles area and onwards inland, traveling in peace with
357-532: The local indigenous people west of the river. In the early 1900s Wyatt Earp spent his last winters here. He worked small gold and copper mining claims, starting around 1906. The nearby townsite of Earp, California on and near those claims was named for him, although his residence actually stands in the town of Vidal, California . Currently, portions of the range within and without the Whipple Mountains Wilderness Area are owned by
378-666: The north of the Imperial Reservoir Watershed . The headwater region of the valley is north of Vidal Junction; the water divide is east of the Turtle Mountains, and due west of the east-west trending Whipple Mountains block. North of the water divide is the southside of Chemehuevi Valley and Chemehuevi Wash . Whipple Mountains The Whipple Mountains ( Mojave : Avii Kur'utat ; Chemehuevi : Wiyaatuʷa̱ ) are located in eastern San Bernardino County, California . They are directly west of
399-627: The peak. The following United States Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5' Quadrangle maps provide coverage of the Whipple Mountains: Data from the Western Regional Climate Center reveals this to be a region of extreme aridity (<150 mm/yr), very high summer temperatures (+40 °C) and mild winter temperatures. The present-day landform of the Whipple Mountains is a series of sub-parallel ridges trending northwest to southeast, cut at right angles by
420-749: The south. The Vidal Valley watershed enters the Colorado River opposite the Bouse Wash Watershed in western Arizona. Both watersheds enter the Parker Valley , mostly occupied by the Colorado River Indian Reservation . As desert washes , typically little or no water flows at the outfall points into the Colorado River, except during rainstorm events. Both the Vidal Valley and the Bouse Wash are in
441-416: The surface. To the east, unaltered tertiary volcanic and sedimentary rocks along with non-mylonitic crystalline Pre-Cambrian rock in the hanging wall form the land surface, but the larger washes provide access to the detachment surface and the rocks surrounding it. Excellent examples of hydrothermal alteration , fluidized cataclasite injection, and other mid- and upper-crustal fault processes abound along
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