Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18^th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 585,930 acres that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California.

Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the Mojave Desert. Originally declared a national monument in 1936, Joshua Tree was redesignated as a national park in 1994. Slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island - the park includes 429,690 acres of designated wilderness.

The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly-saline body of water at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico. When the Colorado River flows into the valley, the lake level depends on river flows and the balance between inflow and evaporative loss. When the river diverts around the valley, the lake dries completely, as it did around 1580. Hundreds of archaeological sites have been found, indicating possibly long-term Native American villages and temporary camps.