Afton Canyon

A side canyon near the campground in Afton Canyon Natural Area; a burned tamarisk area is in the foreground. The Mojave River drains through Afton into the Soda Lake Basin (to the east in the Mojave National Preserve). The canyon formed from the overflow and drainage of ancient Lake Manix, a large lake that once filled the central Mojave Desert region near the end of the last ice age of the Quaternary Period (Meek, 1989; Reheis and Redwine, 2008). Sediments transported by the Mojave River are the source of windblown sand in the Devils Playground and Kelso Dunes in the western part of Mojave National Preserve.