The Agave Hill facility is located along the west edge of Deep Canyon gorge at an elevation of 820 meters (2700 feet). It is easily accessed through a locked gate along State Highway 74. Agave Hill provides researchers with a secure study site at an elevation not easily accessed from Boyd Center.
The facility building is a converted steel shipping container that has a lab room, composting toilet, and bunk room that sleeps four. Electricity and air conditioning are available but not water—researchers must bring their own water for both research uses as well as drinking.
Rainfall and air temperature data are available from this site since 1973. The plant community here is rocky crosotebush scrub infused with some desert chaparral components and Mojave yucca and big galleta grass. Some selected long-term projects conducted at Agave Hill include research on the physiology and physiological ecology of desert succulents by Park Nobel’s lab (UCLA). Doug Kelt (UC Davis) is studying fluctuations in rodent numbers and species composition over time.
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