Between Joshua Tree and Salton Sea, a new national monument

Sam Ribakoff

MECCA HILLS, Calif. (CN) — Stand among the jagged rock formations here, with the clear desert sky above, and it feels like you're deep in the wilderness, far removed from cars and other signs of modern life.

But Mecca Hills — part of the newly established Chuckwalla National Monument — is not in the middle of nowhere. Instead, this sanctuary is right on the periphery of popular and upscale vacation spots like Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park and the site of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Now, visitors will have another reason to visit this part of Southern California. Just days before he left office and following years of advocacy by tribes, conservationists and lawmakers, former President Joe Biden on Jan. 14 signed a proclamation designating Chuckwalla as a national monument. He did the same for the Sáttítla Highlands in Northern California.

In Chuckwalla, the proclamation protects some 624,000 acres of the rugged Colorado Desert — critical habitat for creatures like bighorn sheep, the Chuckwalla lizard and endangered desert tortoises. There’s also important human history here, including petroglyphs, Indigenous cultural sites and World War II-era tank tracks left by training U.S. soldiers.

Even before Biden’s proclamation, Chuckwalla was protected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The BLM previously allowed permits for activities like mining, grazing and construction — though for decades, there has not been much if any land use within the new monument’s footprint. Nonetheless, the designation will provide stricter protections going forward.

Unlike a national park designation, Biden’s proclamation didn’t come with any additional funding.

The exact future of Chuckwalla remains uncertain. Biden authorized tribal governments to help steward the land, but the BLM is still ironing out a management plan. It’s unclear what will become of that plan and when, as billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency continue their shake-up of the federal workforce.

A national monument does not a national park make. For now at least, those familiar with more popular destinations like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone will not find typical amenities like a visitor center. Nor is there much in the way of paved roads or restrooms.

“They could be surprised, to say the least,” said Krystian Lahage, a public policy expert for the Mojave Desert Land Trust, part of a coalition of groups that advocated to protect Chuckwalla.

Not everyone comes prepared for that reality. “You will have your mind blown by what people drive out here,” Lahage said as he guided a pickup truck through the sand. The landscape is so rugged that even a visit to Painted Canyon, one of the monument’s biggest attractions, requires a bumpy ride down an unpaved road. Lahage has seen smaller cars like Toyota Priuses make the trip, but difficulties can arise after heavy desert rains, when the roads get washed out and the land erupts in wildflowers.

At the trailhead to Painted Canyon, tall barbed rocks rise up from the ground like mountains. The rocks come in all colors, from hues of desert pink and sandy yellow-brown to dark shades of purple, black and blue. It looks empty, but there’s life all around, like little desert kit foxes that hide among the canyons.

Chuckwalla National Monument joins several other protected areas in this part of Southern California, including Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve.

Taken together, these protected lands make Southern California’s deserts “one of the most relatively pristine [and] interconnected landscapes outside of Alaska,” Lahage said. But the region is conserved in a patchwork, and sites like Chuckwalla are really just “islands of protection” punctuated by development and industry. Just south of Mecca Hills on the Salton Sea, locals are bracing for a bonanza of lithium mining. Chuckwalla links some of those protected areas together, allowing wildlife an opportunity to migrate in peace.

To help get Biden’s approval, conservationists worked with solar companies, which in exchange got development and transmission lines along nearby Interstate 10.

Bolstering arguments for conservation, the Mojave Desert Land Trust also helped fund a study showing that creosote sequesters more carbon from the atmosphere than pine forests. Creosote — a ubiquitous bush throughout the desert Southwest, and one with a rich history in traditional Native American medicine — is sadly the first plant that often gets ripped up whenever developers stake out land in the desert, Lahage said.

The highlight of Painted Canyon trail is a series of precarious ladders that lead up to copper-colored slot canyons.

Already, visitors are trickling in to admire the sights.

Among them are Oregonians Lexie Harris and Russ Memegat, who stopped for a break after the climb during a visit in January. In an interview, they said they didn’t know about Chuckwalla’s recent designation as a national monument. “We were kind of excited,” Harris said. “This place seems kind of secret.” If anything, its low-profile was part of the draw.

The current underdevelopment of Chuckwalla is part of its appeal. It’s sad, Harris said, when nature sites become widely discovered and turn into destinations for social-media pictures and selfies. The pair was in the area for a wedding and wanted to get off the beaten path. “I can’t remember how I found this place,” Harris said. “I think I was reading something that was like, ‘Fuck Joshua Tree, go to this place.’”