The Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center is one of the original seven of the total 39 sites in the University of California Natural Reserve System.

[7] Deep Canyon, immediately east of the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway, is located inside the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument at the western edge of the Colorado Desert.

[13] The first scientific expedition to the site was carried out in 1908 by Harry Swarth and Joseph Grinnell on behalf of University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

When the need for a non-public range became evident, Boyd donated the initial 1,701 acres (6.88 km2) of land in Deep Canyon in 1958 as well as the funding to spur the University to acquire other contiguous properties.

[20] Because of the remoteness of Deep Canyon, it hosts one of the 300 worldwide optical fiber infrasound sensors (OFIS) used to implement the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.