Chocolate Mountains

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The Chocolate Mountains ( German " chocolate hills" ) are a mountain range in Imperial County and Riverside County in the Colorado Desert in Southern California. The mountain range extends over 100 km in the northwest -southeast direction. It separates the Salton Sink of the Coachella Valley and the Imperial Valley in the west from the valley of the Colorado River in the east.

The highest point of the mountain reaches 877 m, the mountains have but higher because the Salton sink enough on her feet in the Salton Sea to about 72 meters below the sea level. In the southwest lie under the mountain chain, the Algodones Dunes, whose sand dunes are shipped in the eastern part by the wind just below the mountains.

In the mountains there is the Chocolate Mountains Gunnery Range, where the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marines conduct shooting exercises regularly. This training area has an area of ​​approximately 157,000 hectares and thus takes up most of the mountain a.