Sacramento Mountains (California)

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Sacramento Mountains
Sacramento Mountains from Needles 1.jpg
view looking south from River Bridge
(6-(?) miles north of Needles)
Highest point
Peak Eagle Peak
Elevation 3,308 ft (1,008 m)
Dimensions
Length16 mi (26 km)NW-SE
Width10 mi (16 km)
Geography
Relief map of California.png
Red triangle with thick white border.svg
location of Sacramento Mountains in California [1]
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
Region Mojave Desert
County San Bernardino
Geological features Topock Marsh, Mohave Valley and Colorado River
Settlements Needles, California and Topock, Arizona
Range coordinates 34°46′30″N114°45′3″W / 34.77500°N 114.75083°W / 34.77500; -114.75083 Coordinates: 34°46′30″N114°45′3″W / 34.77500°N 114.75083°W / 34.77500; -114.75083
Borders on Chemehuevi Valley, Piute Wash, I-40, Colorado River and Chemehuevi Mountains
Topo map USGS  Flattop Mountain

The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the Eastern Mojave Desert and within Mojave Trails National Monument, in San Bernardino County, California.

Contents

Geography

The range is southwest of Needles and form part of the towns west and southwest border; the range is east of the Piute Mountains, south of the Dead Mountains, and northwest of the Chemehuevi Mountains. The range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction south of Interstate 40, and reach an elevation of 3,308 feet above sea level at Eagles Peak. The Sacramento Mountains are approximately 16 miles long.

Eagle Pass and Eagle Peak are in the south-center of the range; an unimproved road through Eagle Pass connects Needles to the Ward Valley. Flattop Mountain, at 3,029 feet (923 m), lies at the northwest of the range just south of Interstate 40.

The Sacramento Mountains are bordered on the west by the Ward Valley which merges southeasterly into the southeast-draining Chemehuevi Valley and Wash. The southeast of the Sacaramento's merge into a range of equal size, the Chemehuevi Mountains. Both ranges are bordered on the east by a southeast-flowing Colorado River which turns back southwest at the Whipple Mountains.

Needles lies at the east and southeast of the range, as the Colorado River flows along the perimeter of the mountain; the river follows the southwest corner of the Mohave Valley of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation and Mohave Valley, Arizona. The southeast of the Sacramento Mountains border the Chemehuevi's with higher elevations in the Chemehuevi's along the Colorado. At this southern section of the Mohave Valley, Interstate 40 in California crosses into Arizona south of Topock and the Topock Marsh.

The Chemehuevi Wash and Valley southwest of the Sacramento Mountains is one of the major washes along the western California side of the Colorado River. The Piute Wash drains northwest of Needles. Mostly minor, shorter length washes and valleys are found southward towards Yuma, Arizona and Winterhaven, California, many miles downstream.

Name

The Sacramento Mountains are also named for the Sacramento Wash and Sacramento Valley across the Colorado River across from the range, that drains northwestern Mohave County, Arizona into the Topock Marsh.

Adjacent ranges

Related Research Articles

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.

Dead Mountains

The Dead Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. The range borders the tri-state intersection of Nevada, Arizona and California, and the Mohave Valley, with the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation bordering the range foothills on the east and northeast, in the three states.

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.

Chemehuevi Mountains

The Chemehuevi Mountains are found at the southeast border of San Bernardino County in southeastern California adjacent the Colorado River. Located south of Needles, California and northwest of the Whipple Mountains, the mountains lie in a north-south direction in general, and are approximately 15 miles in length.

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.

Mojave Road Historical trails and roads

The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road, is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched 147 miles (237 km) from Beale's Crossing, to Fork of the Road location along the north bank of the Mojave River where the old Mojave Road split off from the route of the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road.

Warm Springs Wilderness

The 112,400-acre (45,500 ha) Warm Springs Wilderness makes up the entirety of the Black Mesa and parts of the surrounding foothills, washes, alluvial fans, and valleys. The Black Mesa is the southernmost section of the Black Mountains of western Mohave County, in northwest Arizona. The region is in the east and southeast of the Mojave Desert of Arizona, southern Nevada, and California.

Black Mountains (Arizona)

The Black Mountains of northwest Arizona are an extensive, mostly linear, north-south trending 75 miles (121 km) long mountain range. It forms the north-south border of southwest Mohave County as it borders the eastern shore of the south-flowing Colorado River from Hoover Dam.

Cerbat Mountains

The Cerbat Mountains is a mountain range in Mohave County in northwest Arizona immediately north of Kingman. The Cerbat Mountains and the White Hills (Arizona) adjacent north, are the dividing ranges between the Detrital Valley west, and the Hualapai Valley east.

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.

Mohave Mountains

The Mohave Mountains are a small 18-mi (29 km) long mountain range of northwest Arizona. The range is a northwest trending range in southwest Mohave County that parallels a southeast-flowing stretch of the Colorado River, the Arizona-California border. The range also forms the southwest border of a flatland region to its east and north, namely, Dutch Flat which lies east, at the south end of Sacramento Valley. Lake Havasu City, AZ on the Colorado, lays opposite the southwest flank of the range, where the London Bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu.

Dutch Flat (Arizona)

Dutch Flat of Arizona is a valley south of the Sacramento Valley and Interstate 40 in southern Mohave County.

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.

Vidal Valley valley in the far eastern Colorado Desert

Vidal Valley is a 20-mile (32 km) long valley in the far eastern Colorado Desert bordering the Colorado River. Most of the valley is in eastern San Bernardino County, California, but the outfall on the Colorado River is in northeast Riverside County. Vidal Valley forms the large border of the south side of the east-west block of the Whipple Mountains massif, the landform that forces the Colorado to flow southeast, then back southwest. The southeast exit of the valley into Parker Valley on the Colorado River skirts the north end of the Riverside Mountains. The Colorado River Aqueduct crosses the midpoint of the valley at Vidal Junction, California. The Vidal Valley also lies due east of the Danby Dry Lake landform.

Date Creek Mountains

The Date Creek Mountains are a short, arid range in southwest Yavapai County, Arizona. Congress is on its southeast foothills, and Wickenburg lies 15 mi (24 km) southeast.

Aquarius Mountains

The Aquarius Mountains are a 45-mi (72 km) long mountain range in southeast Mohave County, Arizona. The range lies in the northwest of the Arizona transition zone, and at the southwest of the Coconino Plateau, a subsection of the Colorado Plateau.

Sacramento Wash (California)

The Sacramento Wash (California) is the drainage southward, then east from the Lanfair Valley of extreme eastern San Bernardino County, California. The drainage combines with the Piute Wash-(mostly of Nevada) at the south terminus of the Dead Mountains, and immediately enters the Colorado River, just north of Needles, California. Another Sacramento Wash occurs across the Colorado, as an eastern drainage from northwest Arizona, also at Needles, CA.

References

  1. "Sacramento Mountains". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2009-05-04.