Those scenes were reality in Southern California’s vast Mojave Desert. There’s no shortage of harrowing tales about near-death experiences with thirst and desperate battles for survival.

“It’s a public misconception that the desert doesn’t burn, but we’re seeing right here that that’s not case,” said Sierra Willoughby, a supervisory park ranger at Mojave National Preserve.

Kelly Fuhrmann, Acting Superintendent, Mojave National Preserve: It's a very special place in a lot of ways, being a desert ecosystem. The vegetation assemblages are quite diverse, although in a ...

Roughly 740,000 acres of the Mojave Desert comprise California's newest national monument in Riverside and Imperial counties. Chuckwalla National Monument was established in mid-January by ...