Box Canyon - Mecca, California

This canyon provides a convenient link between the desert community of Mecca and southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park and yet the short drive through this badlands country can feel very remote indeed. Low canyon walls rise steeply from the sandy floor either side of the road and it's certainly not somewhere you'd want to suffer vehicle problems. The canyon also provides access to the Mecca Hills Wilderness Area, 26,000 acres of unusual geological formations created by the San Andreas Fault.

If you go:
The Painted Canyon - rock formations in various sales of red, pink and orange - can be reached via a 4-mile gravel road leading north from the western end of Box Canyon Road.

Phone Numbers:

Bureau of Land Management
+1 (760) 833-7100