The Spring 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 aris ...

of Southern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

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, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

and managed as the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area 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 springs 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 basins from 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 St ...

watershed, which drains into the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

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 Divide, (one of the Great Basin region borders) continues north through the Indian Springs Pass region, then turns due east at the perimeter mountain ranges north of Las Vegas.

Mount Charleston

The highest point is Mount Charleston (officially Charleston Peak), at . The area around Mount Charleston is protected in the Mount Charleston Wilderness. The main town in the area is also named Mount Charleston (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) 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 goes though the pass. Nevada State Route 160 is just west of the Strawberry Valley pass. Nye County, Nevada Improvements ''nyecountynv.gov''
/ref>

Other peaks

In addition to Mount Charleston, other major summits in the Spring Mountains range include Bonanza Peak, McFarland Peak, Mummy Mountain, Griffith Peak, Bridge Mountain, Mount Wilson and Mount Potosi.

Biological diversity

The Spring Mountains are a sky island

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

. With an area around , and a vertical range of nearly , the mountains encompass a wide variety of

habitats In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, 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 manifestation of its ...

, and the

biological diversity Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Eart ...

is probably greater than anywhere else in Nevada; 37 species of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s are known (more than any other Nevadan range), and 600 species of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...

s 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, then rising to a blackbush scrub zone, followed by a pygmy conifer zone with

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

, 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, Mount Charleston 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 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