Deserts of California - Geography

Geography

Largest desert cities
City Population
Lancaster 156,633
Palmdale 152,750
Hesperia 90,173
Indio 76,036
Apple Valley 69,135
Cathedral City 51,200

There are three main deserts in California: the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Desert, and the Great Basin desert. The Mojave Desert is bounded by the Tehachapi Mountains on the northwest, the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains on the south, and extends eastward to California's borders with Arizona and Nevada; it also forms portions of northwest Arizona. The Colorado Desert lies in the southeastern corner of the state, between the Colorado River and the Transverse Ranges, and continues into Mexico and Arizona to the south and east, (as the named Sonoran Desert). The Great Basin desert lies immediately to the east of the Sierra Nevada cordillera and extends eastward into the state of Nevada.

The deserts encompass all of Imperial County, the southern and eastern portion of Inyo County, the eastern portions of Mono County, Los Angeles County, Kern County, San Diego County, and Riverside County, and most of northern and eastern San Bernardino County. The major urban populations of western San Diego County, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and Greater Los Angeles are over the high mountains towards the Pacific Ocean.

Read more about this topic:  Deserts Of California

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