Big Morongo Canyon is not the most exciting place in the world, but it is a very interesting place. Located just north of Morongo Valley, California, on the edge between the Mojave Desert and the San Bernardino Mountains, it is a mixture of desert and pines. Well, the pines were almost all burnt in the 2006 Sawtooth Complex fire, which burnt virtually the entire canyon.
Big Morongo Preserve, located in Morongo Valley, is a large and beautiful oais that is there because the underground water in Big Morongo Canyon is forced to the surface in Morongo Valley. Several smaller oasises exist in Big Morongo Canyon also.
Geographically, Upper Big Morongo Canyon watershed is bounded on the at west by Mission Creek, a larger and wetter canyon that is also pretty cool. The north boundary of the watershed is the Three Sisters ridge, a spectacular group of peaks in the Eastern San Bernardino Mountains. Just north of Three Sister is Little Morongo Canyon, another canyon like its big sister.
The climate of Big Morongo Canyon is a mix between desert and mountain climates. In the summer, monsoonal thunderstorms bring varying amounts of precipitation. During the winter, Pacific Storms bring rain and snow, although not that much since the Canyon is on the eastern side of the San Bernardino Mountains. In the upper canyon, winter snows are quite common, while lower down, snow is rare but does generally occur in an average winter.
Historically, Big Morongo Canyon has seen many major flash floods caused by thunderstorms. The last such flood, however, was in the early 1980s.
Big Morongo Canyon is by no means unique, but it is a wonderful place. Unfortunately, it was almost completely burned in 2006.
The Global Healing Center
