Virgin Mountains
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The Virgin Mountains are a
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 ...
of the northeastern
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 ...
, located in Clark County, southeastern Nevada and
Mohave County Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United St ...
, northwestern Arizona.


Geography

Virgin Peak, at in elevation, is the highest point in the range. The range is northeast of
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. ...
, and around south of the Nevada town of
Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...
. Hydrologically, the range is located in the Lower Colorado
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. ...
watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...
. (
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
Huc 1501), 91.6% of the range is managed by 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 ...
, with a section of the Virgin Peak area designated within the BLM Virgin Mountain Natural Area.


Natural history

The range has many species of
lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
s, as well as the Panamint rattlesnake and
glossy snake ''Arizona elegans'' is a species of medium-sized colubrid snake commonly referred to as the glossy snake or the faded snake, which is endemic to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It has several subspecies. Some have recommended that ''A. ...
. Trees found in the range include Single-leaf pinyon pine (''Pinus monophylla''), Arizona cypress (''Cupressus arizonica''), White fir (''Abies concolor''), Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii''), and Utah juniper (''Juniperus osteosperma''), and Rocky Mountain juniper (''Juniperus scopulorum''). The range has one
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
species of
stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...
, ''
Timema nevadense ''Timema nevadense'', the Nevada timema, is a species of walkingstick in the family Timematidae. It is found in North America. References Phasmatodea Articles created by Qbugbot Insects described in 1966 {{Phasmatodea-stub ...
''.Strohecker, H. F. 1966. New ''Timema'' from Nevada and Arizona. The Pan-Pacific Entomologist 42: 25-26


See also

*
Virgin Valley The Virgin Valley is a valley in northwest Arizona and southeast Nevada on the Virgin River. The Virgin River drains southwest Utah and southeast Nevada; parts of Arizona, especially the Arizona Strip region drain southwards into the Virgin River ...
*
Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...
*
Virgin River Gorge The Virgin River Gorge, located between St. George, Utah, and Beaver Dam, Arizona, is a long canyon that has been carved out by the Virgin River in northwest Arizona. The Virgin River rises on the Colorado Plateau and created the topography of b ...
* Virgin River Narrows *
South Virgin Mountains The South Virgin Mountains are a smaller mountain range of the eastern Mojave Desert, in Clark County, southeastern Nevada. They are located south of the larger Virgin Mountains range, east of the Virgin River leg of Lake Mead, and west of the Ar ...


References


External links

* {{authority control Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of Arizona Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of Clark County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Mohave County, Arizona Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Bureau of Land Management areas in Arizona Bureau of Land Management areas in Nevada