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 United States Forest Service and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

and managed as the

Spring Mountains National Recreation Area The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) is a U.S. national recreation area, administered by the U.S. Forest Service, west of Las Vegas, Nevada. It covers over . The area runs from low meadows (around above sea level), to the Mount ...

within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Geography

The Spring Mountains range is named for the 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 to be found, many of them in the recesses of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is on the eastern side of the mountains. The Spring Mountains divide the Pahrump Valley and

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 ...

basins from the Las Vegas Valley watershed, which drains into the Colorado River watershed, by way of Las Vegas Wash into Lake Mead, 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 ...

. The

Great Basin Divide The Great Basin Divide in the western United States is the ridgeline that separates the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean watershed, which completely surrounds it. The Great Basin is the largest set of contiguous endorheic watersheds of Nor ...

, (one of the Great Basin region borders) continues north through the

Indian Springs Pass Indian Springs Pass, is a mountain pass 40-mi (64 km) northwest of Las Vegas in northwest Clark County, Nevada. The pass is in a region of converging landforms of various watersheds, valleys, and mountain ranges; specifically it lies on ...

region, then turns due east at the perimeter mountain ranges north of Las Vegas.

Mount Charleston

The highest point is

Mount Charleston Mount Charleston, including Charleston Peak (Nuvagantu, literally "where snow sits", in Southern Paiute or Nüpakatütün in Shoshoni) at , is the highest mountain in both the Spring Mountains and Clark County, in Nevada, United States. It is ...

(officially Charleston Peak), at . The area around Mount Charleston is protected in the

Mount Charleston Wilderness The Mount Charleston Wilderness Area is located west of Las Vegas in the southern part of the state of Nevada in the western United States. It was created by the U.S. Congress in 1989 under the provisions allowed by the Wilderness Act of 1964, a ...

. The main town in the area is also named

(Nevada), which lies in Kyle Canyon. The area is typically 30-40 °F cooler than the valleys below, and it is a popular getaway for Las Vegas residents and visitors. The

Lee Canyon (Ski and Snowboard Resort) The Lee Canyon Ski and Snowboard Resort is located in Lee Canyon, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. The base lodge is situated at the base of Lee ...

lies in Lee Canyon on State Highway 156.

Strawberry Valley

Strawberry Valley is the gap pass on the north point of the Spring Mountains.

U.S. Route 95 in Nevada U.S. Route 95 (US 95) is a major U.S. highway traversing the U.S. state of Nevada from north to south directly through Las Vegas and providing connections to both Carson City (via US 50) and Reno (via Interstate 80). US 95 is cosigned with Inter ...

goes though the pass. Nevada State Route 160 is just west of the Strawberry Valley pass. Nye County, Nevada Improvements ''nyecountynv.gov''
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Other peaks

In addition to Mount Charleston, other major summits in the Spring Mountains range include Bonanza Peak,

McFarland Peak McFarland Peak is a limestone peak in the northern portion of the Spring Mountains in Clark County of southern Nevada. It is in the Toiyabe National Forest and the Mount Charleston Wilderness. McFarland Peak is located north of Mount Charlesto ...

, Mummy Mountain,

Griffith Peak Griffith Peak is located in the Spring Mountains in Clark County of southern Nevada. It is approximately northwest of the Las Vegas Strip and southeast of Mount Charleston. Griffith Peak is Nevada's 43rd highest peak, and the third highest ...

, Bridge Mountain, Mount Wilson and Mount Potosi.

Biological diversity

The Spring Mountains are a sky island ecosystem. With an area around , and a vertical range of nearly , the mountains encompass a wide variety of

habitats In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, and the biological diversity is probably greater than anywhere else in Nevada; 37 species of trees are known (more than any other Nevadan range), and 600 species of vascular plants have been reported from the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area alone. The bases of the mountains are part of the Mojave zone dominated by creosote bush and

white bursage ''Ambrosia dumosa'', the burro-weed or white bursage, a North American species of plants in the family Asteraceae. It is a common constituent of the creosote-bush scrub community throughout the Mojave desert of California, Nevada, and Utah and ...

, then rising to a blackbush scrub zone, followed by a pygmy conifer zone with juniper, pinyon pine, and mountain mahogany, and topped by a montane zone with many species of conifers around Mt. Charleston and its connecting ridges. Palmer's chipmunk is endemic to the Spring Mountains. File:Charleston peak2.jpg,

in the Spring Mountains, Nevada File:UpperKyleCanyonSMNRA.JPG, The cool, forested slopes of upper Kyle Canyon File:Spring Mountains aerial from south.jpg, The sandstone reefs of Red Rock are seen to bridge the northern and southern parts of the Spring Mountains, in this aerial view from the south File:Populus fremontii ssp fremontii 2.jpg, ''Populus fremontii'' tree in the Spring Mountains

References

External links

USDA Spring Mountain Page

Spring Mountains Peaks: photos, elevations, mileage, and GPS coordinates
{{Authority control Spring Mountains, Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of Clark County, Nevada Mountain ranges of the Great Basin