The Chuckwalla Valley is a large valley in eastern Riverside County, California, named for a large lizard, the chuckwalla found in the arid Southwestern United States deserts. The region of the valley in southeast California, is the low elevation section of the Mojave Desert transitioning into the Colorado Desert, the northwest extension (in California) of the Sonoran Desert. The region is notable for valleys containing bajadas, sand dunes, and intermittent, dry, or saline lakes. Chuckwalla Valley contains Ford Lake (Ford Dry Lake) in the east-southeast; Palen Lake (Palen Dry Lake) occurs in the center-northwest, at the south terminus of the smaller, north-south Palen Valley.