Eldorado Valley

Last updated
Eldorado Valley
Eldorado Valley 1.jpg
View south of Eldorado Valley's center & north;
(Highland Range, (center photo) on valley's southwest perimeter; playa visible, ~5-mi)
Relief map of U.S., Nevada.png
Red pog.svg
Eldorado Valley
Eldorado Valley (north at Eldorado Dry Lake)
in Nevada
Length35 mi (56 km)
Width18 mi (29 km)
Geography
Location Nevada, United States
(southeast)- Mojave Desert
(central-southeast)- Great Basin
Population centers Boulder City, NV-NE
Searchlight, NV-(south)
Henderson, NV-NW
Borders on McCullough Range-W
River Mountains-NNE
Eldorado Mountains-E
Piute Valley-S
Highland Range-SSW
Coordinates 35°52.211′N114°55.975′W / 35.870183°N 114.932917°W / 35.870183; -114.932917 Coordinates: 35°52.211′N114°55.975′W / 35.870183°N 114.932917°W / 35.870183; -114.932917

Eldorado Valley, or El Dorado Valley, is a Great Basin valley in the Mojave Desert southeast of Las Vegas and southwest of Boulder City, Nevada. The valley is endorheic, containing the Eldorado Dry Lake. The Great Basin Divide, transects ridgelines and saddles, on the north, northeast, east, and south around the valley, as the valley sits on the east of the McCullough Range, a Great Basin massif, on the Great Basin Divide at its north terminus and its south terminus.

Contents

Geography

The north end of the valley contains a large salt pan, or dry lake, Dry Lake or Eldorado Playa, while the southern two thirds drains northwards. [1] U.S. Route 95 traverses eastern portions of the valley, and climbs steeply to meet U.S. Route 93, connecting Boulder City to Henderson.

The endorheic basin lies north of the Piute Wash Watershed, [2] of the north-south Piute Valley. The Piute Wash drains south, then southeast to the Colorado River.

Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat

The southern valley includes a habitat nature reserve for the Desert Bighorn Sheep, named the 'Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat'. [3] There are no public access routes into the habitat area, to protect the Bighorn.

Solar power

Map of solar farms in the valley Eldorado Valley Solar Farms.jpg
Map of solar farms in the valley

The northern valley contains Boulder City's "Eldorado Energy Zone" which is home to the 480 MW El Dorado natural gas power plant completed in the year 2000. [4] Since 2007, it is also home to the concentrated solar power plant, Nevada Solar One, as well as a growing number of photovoltaic power stations, including: [5] [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

Endorheic basin Closed drainage basin that allows no outflow

An endorheic 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 converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent or seasonal, that equilibrate through evaporation. They are also called closed or terminal basins or internal drainage systems or basins. Endorheic regions contrast with exorheic regions. Endorheic water bodies include some of the largest lakes in the world, such as the Caspian Sea, the world's largest saline inland sea.

Mohave Valley

The Mohave Valley is a valley located mostly on the east shore of the south-flowing Colorado River in northwest Arizona. The valley extends into California's San Bernardino County; the northern side of the valley extends into extreme southeast Clark County, Nevada. The main part of the valley lies in southwest Mohave County, Arizona and is at the intersection of the southeast Mojave and northwest Sonoran deserts.

New York Mountains

The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north of the Lanfair Valley. The mountains are part of the mountain ranges, cones, mountains, and landforms in the Mojave National Preserve. The mountains reach an elevation of 7,533 feet (2,296 m), and run in a mostly southwest-northeasterly direction between the Providence Mountains and the McCullough Range approximately five miles into Nevada and border the northwest corner of the Piute Valley of Nevada-California.

Piute Range

The Piute Range is located in the Mojave Desert, primarily in northeast San Bernardino County, California, United States, with a north portion in Nevada. Most of the range is the eastern border of the Mojave National Preserve, a National Park Service natural area and park.

Lanfair Valley

Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. It is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, and on the south by the Woods Mountains and Vontrigger Hills. Joshua Trees can be found in most of the valley. Elevation is 4,045 feet.

Ivanpah Valley

The Ivanpah Valley is in southeastern California and southern Nevada in the United States. The valley is between the New York Mountains and the Ivanpah Mountains in San Bernardino County on the California side, and in Clark County on the Nevada side. The communities of Cima, California; Nipton, California; Jean, Nevada; and Primm, Nevada are in the valley. The Ivanpah Dry Lake, a popular place for land sailing, and the site of the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport also lie in the valley.

McCullough Range

The mountains in the McCullough Range lie mostly above the city of Henderson in the U.S. state of Nevada. The range has two distinct areas with the northern portion being primarily volcanic in origin, while the southern part of the range is primarily composed of metamorphic rock.

Eldorado Mountains mountain range in Nevada, USA

The Eldorado Mountains, also called the El Dorado Mountains, are a north-south trending mountain range in southeast Nevada bordering west of the south-flowing Colorado River; the endorheic Eldorado Valley borders the range to the west, and the range is also on the western border of the Colorado River's Black Canyon of the Colorado, and El Dorado Canyon on the river. The range is 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Eldorado Mountains connect with the Highland and Newberry mountains.

Fish Lake Valley valley in southwest Nevada

The Fish Lake Valley is a 25 miles (40 km) long endorheic valley in southwest Nevada, one of many contiguous inward-draining basins collectively called the Great Basin. The alluvial valley lies just northwest of Death Valley and borders the southeast, and central-northeast flank of the massif of the White Mountains of California. The valley's southern end lies in eastern Inyo County, California. The valley is sparsely populated with ranchers and indigenous Paiute. Business services are located in the valley's only town, Dyer.

Seaman Range mountain range in Nevada, USA

The Seaman Range is a 30-mile (48 km) long mountain range in Lincoln and Nye counties, Nevada, in the western United States.

Sacramento Wash

The Sacramento Wash is a major drainage of northwest Arizona in Mohave County. The wash is east of the Black Canyon of the Colorado and drains into the south-flowing Colorado River 45 mi south of Lake Mohave, and 90 mi south of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead. The wash outfall is in the center-south of the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed. An equivalent wash drains to the west of the Colorado River and the Black Canyon, draining southeast Nevada and a small part of California, the Piute Wash of the Piute Valley. The Piute Wash outfall is upstream of the Sacramento's outfall by about 15 miles.

Piute Wash

The Piute Wash of extreme southeastern Nevada and northeast San Bernardino County California is the south-flowing drainage of the Piute Valley. The wash and valley are located northwest of Needles, California.

Piute Valley

The Piute Valley is a 45-mile-long (72 km) north–south valley southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and northwest of Needles. The north of the valley is at Searchlight, with some of the valley extending northwest from Searchlight. At the center-north lies Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada.

Chemehuevi Wash river in the United States of America

The Chemehuevi Wash is a large wash of northeast San Bernardino County in the southeast Mojave Desert. The wash enters the center-west bank of Lake Havasu on the California–Arizona border. Chemehuevi Wash drains the center of the Chemehuevi Valley and the regional landforms of washes, valleys and mountains is adjacent the northeast region of the Colorado Desert, the entire region south on the west side of the south-flowing Colorado River.

Three Lakes Valley (Nevada) valley in southern Nevada

Three Lakes Valley is a 25-mile (40 km) long, partially endorheic valley in southwest Lincoln County and northwest Clark County, Nevada. The southwest of the valley has a narrowing with washes that flow south into the watershed of the Las Vegas Valley, a tributary to Lake Mead–Colorado River watersheds.

Lake Valley (Nevada) valley in Nevada, United States of America

Lake Valley is a 60-mile (97 km) long valley in northeast Lincoln County, Nevada. The North Lake Valley is an endorheic basin; South Lake Valley contains Patterson Wash, a northwest headwater tributary to the Meadow Valley Wash; the northeast headwater section of Meadow Valley Wash is a shorter drainage coming from the south of the Wilson Creek Range, the northeast border of South Lake Valley.

Indian Springs Pass


Indian Springs Pass, is a mountain pass 40-mi (64 km) northwest of Las Vegas in northwest Clark County, Nevada.

Highland Range (Clark County)

The Highland Range of Clark County, Nevada, is a small 10-mile (16 km) long, range south of Henderson, Nevada and separated from the southeast flank of the McCullough Range by a narrow, approximately three-mile wide valley, at the head of Piute Wash.

Jean Pass (north) is one of two passes on the west and northwest of the Jean Dry Lake basin, an endorheic basin bordering Jean, Nevada.

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Dry Lake
  2. "Piute Wash watershed--15030102". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  3. "Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat". recreation.gov. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  4. "El Dorado Energy begins commercial operations in Nevada". gasandoil.com. 4 May 2000. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  5. "Boulder City OKs deal for solar power plant". lasvegassun.com. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  6. "NV Energy's Boulder Solar 2 goes fully online". lasvegasnow.com. 13 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  7. "Solar projects". NVEnergy. Retrieved 13 August 2011.