Whitewater Canyon Preserve, managed by the Wildlands Conservancy, is 2,851 acres of desert and riparian habitats surrounded by the Bureau of Land Management's San Gorgonio Wilderness, and that 11,500' peak looms over the terrain like a giant sentinel while the usually year-round Whitewater River winds its way between high hills on either side. With its headwaters in the San Bernardino Mountains, this river flows into the Salton Sea. The Preserve is situated toward the base of the San Bernardino Mountains adjacent to the larger and adjoining Mission Creek Preserve, both of which are part of the Sand to Snow National Monument designated by President Obama in 2016, and is an area where the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts overlap. The photos displayed here are from my first visits to the Preserve, visits which were introductory for me and foreshadowed many more extensive explorations there in 2009 and 2010. The Preserve is located at the end of Whitewater Canyon Road north of the I-10 freeway west of Palm Springs. On Valentine's Day 2019, a major flood damaged the road leading into the canyon requiring several months of repair work, and a small fire burned 52 acres in 2020. An asterisk next to the common name indicates a non-native species.

Heartleaf sun cup
Chylismia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla
Onagraceae

Desert calico
Loeseliastrum matthewsii
Polemoniaceae
[Named for Dr. Washington Matthews, 1843-1905]

Desert lavender
Condea emoryi
Lamiaceae
[Named for William Hemsley Emory, 1811-1887}

Desert bluebells
Phacelia campanularia ssp. campanularia
Hydrophyllaceae

White fiesta flower
Pholistoma membranaceum
Hydrophyllaceae

Yellow pincushion
Chaenactis glabriuscula var. glabriuscula
Asteraceae

Retrorse desert four o'clock
Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa
Nyctaginaceae