The California deserts are home to many natural features. In the California deserts you will find the lowest point in North America, endemic plants and animals, ghost towns and several desert towns. Here is a guide to visiting the California deserts. Also read about how scientists told which desert is the largest in the world: in fact there are two of them on imag.one.
Mojave Desert
This desert is nearly 124,000 km of dry land covering much of southeastern California and extending into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. This desert was named after the Mojave Indian tribe. Summers in the desert get quite hot, with temperatures reaching over 48°C, while winters are very cold. There is relatively little rain here, only about 13 centimeters per year. The desert has a total height of 910 to 1828 meters and a topography that alternates between mountain ranges and basins.
Although deserts are known for their harsh weather conditions that make survival difficult, the Mojave Desert is home to a variety of animals, including mammals, birds, and reptiles. Common species found here are the desert tortoise, mountain lion, kangaroo rat, desert iguana, chuckwalla, king horned lizard, desert pink boa constrictor, and Mojave rattlesnake. Here you can also see hawks, vultures and quails, as well as runners and eagles.
Mojave National Wildlife Refuge
It is a vast area with canyons and mountains, former military mines and outposts, volcanic formations and extensive sand dunes, offering visitors year-round opportunities for exploration.
Castle Hills National Monument
This is a biologically diverse area with unrivaled landscape views. This National Monument's 8,500 hectares are home to Joshua trees, mountains, desert grasslands, and wildlife.
Mojave Trails National Monument
This monument includes mountain ranges, stunning sand dunes, and old lava flows. It is also home to the popular Amboy Crater, as well as some of the best-preserved sections of the wartime desert training center.
Colorado Desert 
It is a vast sandy desert in southeastern California, parts of which extend as far south and east as far as Mexico and Arizona. This desert includes the Coachella and Imperial valleys. The Colorado Desert is below 304 meters above sea level, with most of its peaks no higher than 914 meters.
It has a subtropical desert environment with near freezing temperatures due to its latitude and low altitude. Summers in this desert are hotter than in other higher deserts. The desert terrain consists of creosote bushes, yucca and cholla cacti, and desert salt marshes. Piñon pine and California juniper can also be found at higher elevations. Some of the desert animals that roam the region include the bobcat, cactus mouse, mule deer, desert kangaroo rat, black-tailed hare, and Yuma antelope.
Coachella Valley Museum
The purpose of the museum is to preserve and showcase a unique history the Coachella valley. The Smiley-Tyler House is a 1926 adobe house that houses the main exhibits. There is also a completely restored two-room schoolhouse from 1909, a water tower from 1926 and several deserted gardens.
Fan Palm Oasis
The Colorado Desert is the only desert where you can find an oasis with fan palms. The fan palm is the largest in North America and the only native palm in the western United States. It can survive from 80 to 90 years, reaching a height of more than 23 meters and a trunk width of more than 1 meter.
Palm Springs Aviation Museum
It is a living history museum with permanent and temporary exhibits, artefacts and works of art that introduce visitors to American history. This museum has one of the most impressive collections of wartime flying aircraft in the world.
Great Basin Desert 
This large desert extends through parts of Nevada, Utah, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming. The lowlands of this region are relatively high, most of the area exceeding 1188 meters, and the desert contains more than 30 peaks with peaks above 3000 meters. The Great Basin Desert experiences extreme temperatures, ranging from dry, scorching hot summers to cold, freezing winters. This desert has a basin and range topography with areas of desert lowlands surrounded on both sides by parallel mountain ranges.
The extreme isolation between valleys and peaks in this region has resulted in a diverse environment and numerous small populations of unique plant and animal species. Despite the harsh living conditions in this desert, plants have adapted to the soil in order to survive. Black stubble, Mormon tea, creosote bushes, sagebrush, and salt marsh grow here. Occasionally, several varieties of cacti and yucca can be seen here. Flex pines, junipers, piñons, and bristlecone pines are among the other trees that grow in this desert.
Mammals found in this desert include weasels, shrews, bats, mountain lions, lynxes, black-tailed hares, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, kangaroo rats, pronghorn antelopes, bighorn sheep and mules. The desert is also home to reptiles and birds such as the western lizard, long-nosed leopard lizard, horned toad, rattlesnakes and ground squirrels, bald eagles, western meadow larks and red-tailed hawks.
Alpine Lakes Loop
This more than 4 km long loop passes through alpine forest and past picturesque streams, showing life in the shadow of Wheeler Peak. This roundtrip trip to the highland grandeur of the Great Basin rewards travelers with views of two beautiful lakes, Lakes Stella and Teresa.
Bristlecon Pine Trail
The Bristlecon Trail passes through a pine forest, offering fantastic views of some ancient Bristlecon pines, the surrounding valley and Zion National Park in the distance. These pines are considered some of the oldest trees in the world, and some are thousands of years old.
Mountain View Nature Trail
This is a nearly 2-kilometer trail that winds its way through a pine-juniper forest. The trail is commonly used for hiking and bird watching and offers breathtaking views of nature. Hiking this trail is also an educational experience that will teach you about the diverse flora of the Great Basin Desert.
Lexington Arch
This is a massive limestone arch that rises from the bottom of Lexington Canyon. This imposing natural arch is different in that it is made of limestone, as opposed to the sandstone that most natural arches are made of in the western United States.
