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Map Satellite Snowstorm Creek traverses this high-desert wildlife area. The creek has cut steep, rocky canyons in portions of the gently sloping Pleistocene basaltic rock before debouching into the Tertiary lake bed of Secret Valley, with its clayey to sandy rhyolitic ash deposits.
Vegetation in the area is typical of the Great Basin steppe, with rabbit brush, Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus, black greasewood, Sarcobatus vermiculatus, sagebrush, Artemisia sp., and Atriplex sp. among the more conspicuous elements. Other plants include bitter-brush, Purshia tridentata, curl-leaf mountain mahogany, Cercocarpus ledifolius, and squaw-apple, Peraphyllum ramosissimum. There is a scattering of Western Juniper, Juniperus occidentalis.
This area is part of the summer range of the prong-horn, Antilocapra americana. Other animals commonly sighted here include coyote, Canis latrans, bobcat, Lynx rufus, badger, Taxidea taxus, cottontail, Sylvilagus nuttalli, the introduced chukar, Alectoris graeca, and sage grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, among others.
Integrity; Once overgrazed by cattle, the area is being restored. There are fences, impoundments on the creek, and a railroad line in the area.
Use: Research, educational, observational, present.
March 1980
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman
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