Joshua Tree Desert, California
by Venetia Featherstone-Witty
Title
Joshua Tree Desert, California
Artist
Venetia Featherstone-Witty
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act (Public Law 103-433), it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the park. It covers a land area of 790,636 acres, an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A large part of the park, some 429,690 acres is a designated wilderness area. Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park.The dominant geologic features of this landscape are hills of bare rock, usually broken up into loose boulders. These hills are popular amongst rock climbing and scrambling enthusiasts. The flatland between these hills is sparsely forested with Joshua trees. Together with the boulder piles and Skull Rock, the trees make the landscape otherworldly.
FEATURED 8/9/15 in "One Tree - Not Trees"
Uploaded
August 15th, 2014
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