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The Coachella Valley is a large valley landform in Southern California that is populated by nearly one million people, which includes the famed tourist destination, Palm Springs, this valley is part of the 14th largest metropolitan area in the United States, the Inland Empire. Geographically it is the agricultural and recreational desert valley in Southern California, United States (U.S.), east of Riverside and San Bernardino. The Coachella Valley is the second largest sub-region in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area only after the Greater San Bernardino Area. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles (72 km) in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the saltwater Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide along most of its length, bounded on the west by the San Jacinto Mountains and the Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner and along the centerline of the Little San Bernardinos. The fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain. The Chocolate Mountains are home to a United States Navy live gunnery range and are mostly off-limits to the public. In comparison to the "Inland Empire" (Riverside-San Bernardino area and the California desert), some people refer to the IE 's sub-region Coachella Valley as the "Desert Empire" to differentiate it from the Imperial Valley. Geographers and geologists sometimes call the area, along with the Imperial Valley to the south, the "Cahuilla Basin" or the "Salton Trough."[1]
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