Box Canyon, Near Palm Springs, California - The American Southwest

Home | Parks | Trails | Plants | Canyons Maps | Landscapes | Site Map | Whats New? | More... × General Pages Home Parks Trails Plants Slot Canyons Maps Landscapes Itineraries Site Map What's New? More pages... States Arizona California Colorado Idaho Nevada New Mexico Oregon Texas Utah Wyoming ARIZONA CALIFORNIA COLORADO IDAHO NEVADA NEW MEXICO OREGON TEXAS UTAH WYOMING CALIFORNIAMAPS | PARKS | TRAILS | HOTELS

All California Locations... NPS Cabrillo Death Valley Devils Postpile Golden Gate Joshua Tree Kings Canyon Lassen Volcanic Lava Beds Manzanar Mojave Muir Woods Pinnacles Point Reyes Redwood Santa Monica Mountains Sequoia Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity Yosemite OTHER PLACES Alabama Hills Algodones Dunes Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest Andrew Molera State Park Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Big Basin Redwoods State Park Big Sur Bodie State Historical Park Box Canyon Calaveras Big Trees State Park Calico Ghost Town California Missions Castle Crags State Park Crowley Lake Columns Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park Donner Memorial State Park Eastern Sierra Emerald Bay State Park Estero Bluffs State Park Fossil Falls Garrapata State Park Gaviota State Park Giant Sequoia National Monument Griffith Park Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park Harmony Headlands State Park Hat Creek Hot Creek Humboldt Lagoons State Park Humboldt Redwoods State Park Jacumba Natural Area Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park La Jolla Tide Pools Lake Tahoe Lost Coast MacKerricher State Park Mammoth Lakes McArthur-Burney Falls State Park Mendocino Headlands State Park Mojave Trails National Monument Mono Lake Montaña de Oro State Park Montgomery Woods SNR Morro Bay State Park Mount Shasta Palm Springs Pinnacles NNL Point Arena Point Cabrillo Light Station Point Lobos State Natural Reserve Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Rainbow Basin NNL Red Rock Canyon State Park Route 66 Saddleback Butte State Park Salt Point State Park Salton Sea San Gabriel Mountains San Bernardino Mountains Sand to Snow National Monument Sonoma Coast State Park Sue-meg State Park Tomales Bay State Park Torrey Pines State Reserve Trinidad State Beach Vasquez Rocks Volcanic Tableland California site map

Box Canyon California > Box Canyon Highlights: Colorful valley lined by upturned strata, alongside CA 195 in the Mecca Hills - part of a metamorphic zone associated with the San Andreas Fault Nearby town: Indio, 20 miles Management: BLM Location: 33.603, -115.923 Seasons: All year, though hiking away from the road is best avoided during the hot summer months Rating (1-5): ★★★★★ There are over a dozen Box Canyons in California; this one is a colorful ravine through the Mecca Hills at the east end of the Coachella Valley in the southeast corner of the state, 40 miles from Palm Springs. The sides are formed by upturned strata - twisted, buckled and eroded, they stretch for about eight miles along the canyon, which is part of a metamorphic zone associated with the nearby San Andreas Fault. This runs through the Coachella Valley then southeast past the Salton Sea, and affects the geology of a wide strip of land at either side.

Box Canyon Table of Contents

• The canyon
• Box Canyon Road
• Nearby places
• Similar places

Strata bordering Box Canyon RoadView south along the twisted, upturned rocks of Box Canyon ⇧

The Canyon

A scenic, lightly traveled road (CA 195) runs through the ravine, linking CA 111 with I-10 and continuing northwards into Joshua Tree National Park. Plant life is limited to scattered bushes and palo verde trees along the sandy valley floor, as the jagged rock walls are completely bare. The surrounding hills contain other narrow ravines, some of which become authentic slot canyons, plus springs, oases and a large area of vividly colored badlands; one other quite well known location is Painted Canyon, reached by a 4 mile gravel track (with soft sand in places) leading west off Box Canyon Road, which has impressive rock formations in shades of pink, orange and red and grey. This particular ravine leads into the heart of the Mecca Hills Wilderness Area, a 24,000 acre preserve created by the 1994 California Desert Protection Act. Some of the best slots in the area are east-side tributaries of Painted Canyon. Dry wash alongside Box Canyon Road ⇧

Box Canyon Road

It only takes about 15 minutes to drive through the interesting part of Box Canyon, after which the highway crosses the much more open Shavers Valley, and although there are no official trails, several days could be spent investigating the surrounding country. There are various places for camping by the roadside - good locations to stay but often with quite a lot of litter. ⇧

Box Canyon - Nearby Places

• Joshua Tree National Park (20 miles) - desert, large rocks and curious plants
• Salton Sea (15 miles) - salty lake surrounded by stark desert scenery

Box Canyon - Similar Places

• Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California - large desert area with many interesting canyons

Back to Top Arizona | California | Colorado | Idaho | Nevada | New Mexico | Oregon | Texas | Utah | Wyoming | Slot Canyons | Travelogue | SOUTHWEST All Contents © Copyright The American Southwest | Comments and Questions | Contribute | Affiliate Marketing Disclosure | Site Map