A short distance northwest of Palm Springs, California, a climbing dune has been formed in a gap in a spur of the San Jacinto Mountains that extends easterly into Coachella Valley. Wind funnelling through the pass between the San Jacinto and the San Bernardino Mountains picks up sand from the dry wash at the base of the spur and carries it up through the gap. The sand is coarse and the wind is almost constant, as a result of which spectacular wind effects have been achieved.

Juniper trees that have managed to grow at all have been bent over until the trunks have broken, and they are now growing in a prone position, with smaller plants crowding closely in their lee. Small plants also cluster in the lee of the larger projecting rocks, growing laterally rather than vertically. These rocks, which are principally granitic, with some gneiss, schist, and quartzite, are pitted, grooved, and fluted in a most fantastic way. More fantastic still, however, is the fact that the grooving and fluting are continued without variation in the bushes sheltering behind the rocks.

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