Carpenter Canyon is a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

on the western side of the

Spring Mountains The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of Southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the Uni ...

, partially within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, in Clark County, southern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

west of the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...

. Carpenter Canyon is accessible via State Route 160 and Carpenter Canyon Road near Pahrump. Carpenter Canyon Road is a minimally maintained dirt road reaching roughly 10 miles into the mountains and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. A clearwater

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

, the Carpenter Canyon Creek, runs through Carpenter Canyon the entire year, supporting a small population of

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

, which is uncommon in the Spring Mountains and Mojave Desert.

Natural history

Geology

The Spring Mountains divide the

Pahrump Valley Pahrump Valley is a Mojave Desert valley west of Las Vegas and the Spring Mountains massif in southern Nye County, Nevada, and eastern San Bernardino County, California. Pahrump, Nevada, is in the valley's center and the Tecopa and Chicago Valley ...

, Mesquite Valley, and upper

Amargosa River The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, int ...

basin to the west from the

, to the east and which drains into the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, thus the mountains define part of the boundary of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

and

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

ecoregions An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. A number of

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

s can be found in the recesses of the Red Rock Canyon area which lies on the mid-eastern side of the range. One of the more notable springs feeds Carpenter Canyon Creek.

Plants

In Lower Carpenter Canyon, Creosote bush - ''Larrea tridentata'' and golden native

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

es dominate the landscape. Moving further up in elevation, Banana yucca - ''Yucca baccata'', Mojave yucca - ''Yucca schidigera'', and the Joshua Tree - ''Yucca brevifolia'' appear more frequently. Small flowering plants also become common. At around 5,000 feet, Utah Juniper -''Juniperus osteosperma'' trees and Single-leaf Pinyon - ''Pinus monophylla'' are introduced, and above this elevation they dominate the terrain. Towards the source of the creek, and the head of the canyon Ponderosa Pine - ''Pinus ponderosa'' and a wide variety of flowering plants are prevalent. This includes the indigenous Desert Columbine - '' Aquilegia shockleyi''.

Riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

plants, such as Fremont Cottonwood - ''Populus fremontii'', flank the creek

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

References

{{reflist

External links

* https://www.nevadawilderness.org/ Spring Mountains

Canyons and gorges of Nevada This category contains canyons in the U.S. state of Nevada. Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the ...

Landforms of Clark County, Nevada Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest

Natural history

Geology

Plants

See also

References

External links