Z107.7 is broadcasting to you from Joshua Tree – located more or less right in the middle of the Morongo Basin, which itself is a roughly-defined valley stretching from Twentynine Palms and the Marine Corp Air Ground Combat center, westward through Yucca Valley and including the unincorporated areas of Wonder Valley, Pioneertown and Rimrock, Landers, Morongo Valley, Yucca Mesa, Desert Heights, Johnson Valley, Homestead Valley, Flamingo Heights and of course, Joshua Tree.
Despite all these specificities, there’s one broader term that almost everyone can use to describe our little part of the Mojave – and that’s “the Hi-Desert.” First time visitors expecting the type of desert you stereotypically see in movies or cartoons may be surprised by the varied weather our elevation brings, and the surrounding mountains and hills provide a unique backdrop to our famous charismatic native plants and animals.
So if the “high” in high desert means higher in elevation – you’d naturally think of spelling it H-I-G-H. However, that spelling actually refers to another part of the inland empire, specifically Victor and Antelope Valley to our north. When referring to the Morongo Basin, it’s spelled with a simple “H” and “I” – which you can see reflected in business names around the basin like the Hi-Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley and the Hi-Desert Medical Center.
It’s a small detail for sure, but one that gives our area another point of distinction. The term high desert isn’t unique to California’s Mojave Desert. Our neighboring state to the north and my home state of Oregon has areas referred to as the high desert – with similarly situated rocky desert regions like Sisters and Bend, or the famously fast Alvord Dry Lake in eastern Oregon where you can ride a motorcycle with the throttle wide open for miles – a particularly formative experience for this reporter.
Those desert regions have their own appeal and beauty – and as a desert defender and lover of all outdoor experiences, I’m not throwing shade at any of our other arid neighbors to the north… however I like that our area is spelled with a simple and friendly “H and I.” I think of it on mornings when I can greet the sun coming up over the hills, casting a warm raking light over the valley that I’ve chosen as my home.
I’ll also be thinking of it as we ring in 2024 in the Morongo Basin – saying hello to another year of living an elevated experience of desert beauty right here in the hi desert of Southern California.
