The World's Most Beautiful Places
“The Needles” are a rock formation of the 18-mile long Mojave Mountain Range that straddles the Arizona and California border and is bisected by the Colorado River, Topock Gorge and Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu is a popular tourist destination for water sports that lies on the edge of the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. To the west lie the Chemehuevi Mountains.
A wooden sign designates the Manzanar War Relocation Center with a view of the snow covered Eastern Sierra Nevada Range of California in the distance.
Manzanar was one of 10 concentration camps created by the United States government, to incarcerate more than 120,000 United States citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The Japanese Americans were held from March 1942 to November 1945. Manzanar is located in the Owens Valley close to Death Valley and the Nevada border. The name Manzanar means apple orchard in Spanish, which comes from the name of the town once located there, as well as the area’s previous farming history.
Sunrise reflection on Squaw Lake with palm trees, an offshoot of the Colorado River south of the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, and north of Yuma, Arizona, near the border of California. This view is from the T.K. Jones Campground, a popular destination for fisherman and kayakers.