Colorado Desert

It's hot, it's dry, you see desert scrub everywhere, and there's a toxic lake. You're in the Colorado Desert! Though this beautiful hot desert is a challenging environment, it is home to many unique plants and animals, and many people live here as well. As we trek further and further into the desert, we'll learn more about its location, climate, and characteristics. But please, bring a bottle of water – it's already 35°C!

Colorado Desert California

The Colorado Desert is a large 28,000 km² (∼7 million acres) hot desert in North America.

About two-thirds of the Colorado Desert is located in the US state of California. The lower third of the Colorado Desert is in the Mexican state of Baja California.

Map of Colorado Desert

In the map below, the Colorado Desert is outlined in yellow.

Fig. 1 - A map of the Colorado Desert

The Colorado Desert is surrounded by mountains from the Peninsular Ranges, shielding it from the Pacific Ocean. These mountains likely had a major impact on how the Colorado Desert originally formed, as they blocked rain clouds emerging over the Pacific as part of a phenomenon known as the rain shadow effect.

The Salton Sea features prominently in the approximate middle of the desert. The Salton Sea is a large lake with very high salinity (saltiness.) The Colorado River serves as the eastern border of the desert. Additionally, note that part of Joshua Tree National Park, part of the United States National Park System, covers much of the northwestern boundary of the desert.

The Colorado Desert is but a small part of the Sonoran Desert, one of the most iconic deserts in North America. Immediately to the northwest of the Sonoran Desert is the Mojave Desert.

Colorado Desert climate

The Colorado Desert is a hot desert. Hot deserts can be quite brutal ecosystems; soaring day-time temperatures (often greater than 40°C) combined with a general lack of rainfall creates a hot environment that can prove hostile to all but the hardiest of plants and animals. This dearth of vegetation sends temperatures plummeting once the sun sets; there is nothing around to retain any heat to keep hot deserts warm at night.

The Colorado Desert is at a lower elevation than many other hot deserts and its temperatures tend to be a bit hotter than most hot deserts. Summer temperatures can reach 49°C. Around Joshua Tree National Park (which partly lies in the Mojave Desert), temperatures can range from around 16°C in December to around 34°C in January.

The Colorado Desert has two rainy seasons, one in winter and one in late summer. Outside of these rainy seasons, the Colorado Desert experiences very little precipitation. The Colorado Desert also experiences relatively low humidity, as the general lack of water in the area prevents water vapour from concentrating in the air.

Colorado Desert plants

Although the Colorado Desert is less biodiverse than most temperate and tropical ecosystems, the Colorado Desert still has its fair share of plants and animals!

As we mentioned earlier, hot deserts can be challenging environments. In order for plants to thrive here, they need to be able to cope with limited water, extreme variations in temperature, and poor soil quality. In fact, in deserts, soil quality is usually so poor that water just penetrates right through it. Some water may pool at the surface and flood over, a phenomenon called runoff. In the worst case, desert rain storms can cause flash floods.

Plant life in the Colorado Desert includes desert scrub, hardy flowers, and cacti. These plants are uniquely adapted to life in the desert. Many species of cacti, for example, have adapted the ability to exchange gases at night, allowing them to conserve water, a process called crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM photosynthesis.

Fig. 2 - A field of cholla cacti

If you were to visit the Colorado Desert, you could expect to find several species of creosote scrub, several species of cholla cacti, the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), the sandfood flower (Pholisma sonorae) and Peirson's milkvetch (Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii), among many other plants. Trees and other large plants, like desert fan palms, junipers, and cottonwoods, are more common around the Salton Sea and the Colorado River as well as at higher elevations.

The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is found almost exclusively in the Mojave Desert.

Colorado Desert animals

Reptiles and insects, which are cold-blooded, tend to adapt to the heat of hot deserts better than many mammals, though they still seek shelter when the day is at its hottest. The Colorado Desert is home to different species of desert tortoises, flat-tailed horned lizards, scarab beetles, and the red diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus ruber).

Fig. 3 - A tortoise (Gopherus agassizii ) meanders across the desert

Many desert mammals are entirely nocturnal, meaning they are active at night, allowing them to avoid the daytime heat. Foxes, bobcats, and many small rodents in the Colorado Desert, like kangaroo rats and cactus mice, are able to thrive by being nocturnal. The limited desert oases, as well as the areas of the desert closer to the Colorado River, are able to support larger (though still hardy) mammals like mule deer and bighorn sheep.

The Salton Sea is a major hotspot for birds. Over 400 species of birds either permanently live around the Salton Sea or stop near it temporarily during their annual migrations. Species include Ruddy Ducks, Eared Grebes, White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, Western Snowy Plovers, and California Black Rails. However, salinity has been rapidly increasing over the past few decades and the lake will likely ultimately become entirely inhospitable to all animals save the desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius), which can withstand extremely high levels of salinity.

Colorado Desert human characteristics

Believe it or not, over 200,000 people live across the Colorado Desert. The entirety of Imperial County, California, is located in the Colorado Desert, with a population of about 180,000. Portions of other counties in California and Baja California are also located in the Colorado Desert. The city of Palm Springs, California, one of the most populated areas in the Colorado Desert, has about 45,000 residents.

The single biggest challenge humans face in the Colorado Desert is access to water. Remember the Salton Sea? Back in 1700, the lake was dried up. When the human population of the Colorado Desert began to increase, the government of California approved a project to divert water from the Colorado River to refill the Salton Sea. Through the Salton Sea, residents of the Colorado Desert were able to farm their crops.By the 1970s, agricultural pollution and reactivated salt deposits had effectively turned the Salton Sea toxic. The Salton Sea is now shrinking and may be entirely gone within a few decades.

Colorado Desert facts

Here are some Colorado Desert facts!

The Colorado Desert is a popular destination for tourists. In addition to Joshua Tree National Park, the Colorado Desert also hosts a California state park and several recreation areas.

But perhaps the Colorado Desert's current claim to fame is the Coachella Valley, where a music festival is held annually in the city of Indio. Attendance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been as high as 250,000, effectively doubling the number of people in the Colorado Desert for a time.

The Algodones Dunes, in the southern portion of the Colorado Desert, have served as a set for several films, including Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Jumanji: The Next Level.