Are you planning a trip to Death Valley soon? While there are many great places to visit and interesting things to see in the park, I encourage you to make a stop on your way to the park – and it does not even require that you take a different route. About an hour north of Baker along Highway 127 lies...

The western desert tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes) also known as the Arizona blond tarantula and Mexican blond tarantula are common in the deserts of southern California, Arizona and New Mexico. Desert tarantulas, like other tarantula species, have a body covered entirely with hair. Like all spiders,...

The American Badger (Taxidea taxus) is a North American badger that has a rather large range – from as far east as Ohio, into portions of Canada and Mexico and all of the western states. The American badger has a flat body with short, stout legs and a triangular face with a long, pointed, tipped-up...

If you take a trip to or through the desert, you will likely see this plant as you drive down the road. Most people can identify it – the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), otherwise known as greasewood. The creosote bush is a flowering medicinal herb that is a prominent species in the Mojave and...

If you find yourself traveling east on Interstate 40 to Needles or beyond, you might want to consider a short side trip to explore Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark. It’s located just off of National Trails Highway (Historic Route 66) about 28 miles east of the town of Ludlow. Amboy Crater is...

Some people who visit our desert regions for the first time encounter what they believe to be a frightening creature – a large lizard that some say looks a bit like a small alligator. That fear-inducing creature is a chuckwalla (sauromalus ater). The chuckwalla is the second largest lizard in the United...

The Mojave fringe-toed lizard (Uma scoparia), is a medium-sized, flat-bodied, smooth-skinned lizard that is found only in the Mojave Desert from the southern end of Death Valley to the Colorado River around Blythe and into the extreme western edges of Arizona. The Mojave fringe-toed lizard is one of...

There is an odd and mysterious tunnel in the Mojave Desert, specifically in the El Paso Mountains east of Highway 14 and north of the Redrock-Randsburg Road. The tunnel cuts through about a half-mile of solid granite and does not lead anywhere. It merely emerges on a high ledge in the middle of nowhere. This...

Most of us have watched Bugs Bunny cartoons where Bugs walks through the desert and sees a mirage. While the hot desert sun often creates the appearance of water where it does not actually exist, there are quite a few places throughout the Death Valley area that are real desert wetlands and not mere...

Many people are intrigued by California’s prehistoric times and the people who lived here during those times. In California, the term “prehistory” represents the time prior to 1542 when the first European explorers began traveling through California and began documenting their first encounters...