In Southern California’s Chuckwalla Mountains—named after the chunky chuckwalla lizard—you can pull off I-10 and drive up into a BLM campground in the oasis above. Although there was a fire recently, half of the palms in the oasis are still okay. Honestly, my brief hike was a bit disappointing, with no sign of the lizard. Since it’s obviously hot in the desert, staying at a campground overnight can be a good way to hike early morning when it’s cooler.

Despite all those TV commercials suggesting that you need some big gas-guzzler to drive into the desert, I made it in my electric car. Desert unpaved roads are inconsistent depending on recent weather. But since it’s usually dry, the roads are usually fine. So I ignored the sign saying 4 wheel drive only, and I had no trouble in my low clearance sedan over the 6 mile road, which alternately is sandy, hard, flat, rocky and bumpy. A flash flood could wash out a road, so you do need to watch the weather especially if camping.

In my next post I’ll talk more about different types of national monuments and recreation areas, but this one extends the Joshua Tree ecosystem south and southeast, connecting over 600,000 acres of remote mountainous wilderness between the Sonoran and Mojave deserts.