Closed Sand Dune Areas
Thousand Palms Dunes
Thousand Palms Dunes are now closed to vehicles
Location:
Ten miles east of Palm Springs, CA
Directions:
Interstate 10 to east on Ramon Rd., then north on 1000 Palms Canyon Rd.
Description:
For thousands of years, particles of sand from the San Bernardino Mountains
and Indio Hills washed into the Coachella Valley, forming a system of
dunes.
The Coachella Valley was once dominated by nearly 100 square miles of sand
dunes; today there is fewer than 5% of that habitat remaining in viable
condition.
Managed By:
Jointly managed by the BLM - Palm
Springs, The Nature Conservancy; California Department of Fish and Game;
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and California Department of Parks and
Recreation.
Size: The preserve is 20,000 acres.
Date of Closure:
Type of Closure: Permanent
Reason for Closure:
The dunes and surrounding area became part of the Coachella
Valley Preserve and Coachella
Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Both
areas were designed to protect the Coachella
Valley fringe-toed lizard, (Uma inornata).
Other information:
The 13,000 acre Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge was
established by the USFWS in 1985 to protect the lizard. The 20,000 acre
Coachella Valley Preserve, encompasses an additional area adjacent to the
refuge.
The Coachella Valley Preserve has three separate dune systems,
Thousand Palms, Willow Hole, and Whitewater River, each with separate sand
sources. The Thousand Palms dune system is the largest of the three.
Simone Dune is another name for
one of the dunes within the preserve.
Endangered or Threatened Species:
Map:
Links:
Other Photos:
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