Three Lakes Valley is a long,Nevada Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, c. 2010, p. 66-67. partially

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

valley in southwest Lincoln County and northwest Clark County,

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 southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. The southwest of the valley has a narrowing with washes that flow south into the watershed of the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the 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 Statistical Area i ...

, a tributary to

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

–

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 watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

watersheds.

Description

Three Lakes Valley is short, only about 25 mi long, mostly north–south trending. The valley exits southwestwards between the foothills of perimeter mountains. The bordering

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

s are the Pintwater Range, arc-shaped and north–south trending, on the west. The eastern borders of the valley are mostly the

East Desert Range The East Desert Range is a mountain range in Lincoln County, Nevada. Description The range is northwest–southeast trending around the Three Lakes Valley where Dog Bone Lake is the large landform in the valley flatlands. The range sits most ...

in the east and northeast; in the extreme southeast lies the northern areas of the

Desert Range The Desert Range is a mountain range in Clark County, Nevada, Clark County, Nevada. Desert Range was descriptively named on account of its desert landscape. References

Mountain ranges of Clark County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Nevada {{ ...

, where washes exit on the west to flow into the northwest-by-southeast Las Vegas Valley. The Dog Bone Lake lakebed comprises about half the valley. Short washes mark the east and west valley perimeter; a longer string of washes extend northwest into a narrowing watershed source, between the convergence of the northern Pintwater Range and the northwest of the East Desert Range.

References

{{Reflist File:Wfm nellis range redactions.jpg, Dog Bone Lake (lower right) Valleys of Nevada Valleys of Clark County, Nevada Valleys of Lincoln County, Nevada