346 Adventures in Scenery 



Bernardino Range to the north, via the Morongo Valley. The 

 "forest" of Joshua trees in the park, which has been appro- 

 priately (and wisely) established as a national monument, will 

 stand in the memory as a unique desert feature, and Twenty- 

 nine Palms, claimed to be the only oasis (naturally fertile area 

 in a desert) in the State, will repay the journey of 47 miles from 

 Whitewater. 



At any rate visit the Devil's Garden before proceeding 

 westward. You will say the Devil's Garden is rightly named! 

 But this was "advertised" as a desert trip! This is the last real 

 taste of desert before entering the San Gorgonio Pass. It may 

 seem incredible that rock fragments of such size, huge boulders 

 weighing many tons, and in such abundance, should be moved 

 by running water, but remember the formula (for the carrying 

 power of streams) figured out by physicists: the transporting 

 power increases as the sixth power of the velocity. The rocks 

 of the Devil's Garden are the product of torrential floods of 

 Mission Creek. 



San Gorgonio Pass a Sunken Valley, or Graben 



Proceeding westward through San Gorgonio Pass, Cabazon 

 (eight miles from Whitewater) Banning (14 miles), and Beau- 

 mont (20 miles) are in the famed sunken faulted valley which 

 lies between the lofty San Gorgonio Peak on the north, and 

 San Jacinto Peak on the south. This valley is what geologists 

 call a "graben," that is, a valley floor depressed between up- 

 lifted fault walls. The San Andreas fault marks the wall of 

 the uplifted San Bernardino Mountains on the north and the 

 great uplifted block of the San Jacinto Mountains on the south. 

 The alluvial fans that have been formed by streams flowing 

 down the steep mountain walls have been described in Chapter 

 XVII. The ride through the Pass will be delightful (if you 

 are not in too much hurry) . At Cabazon and Banning fine 

 orchards will be observed on the lower slopes of the fans which 

 occur at the mouths of the mountain streams. 



