The Piute Range is located in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, primarily in northeast

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

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 ...

, with a north portion in

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 ...

. Most of the range is the eastern border of the

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, US, between Interstate 15 in California, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, ...

, a

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

natural area and park.

Geography

The mountains lie to the east of

Lanfair Valley Lanfair Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California near the Nevada state line. The valley is bounded on the north by the New York Mountains and Castle Mountains (California), Castle Mountains, on the east by the Piute Range, ...

and southeast of the

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 ...

and Castle Mountains, and northeast of the

Piute Mountains The Piute Mountains are a mountain range located in the Eastern Mojave Desert and within Mojave Trails National Monument, in San Bernardino County, California. Geography The range crosses Interstate 40 at Mountain Springs Summit, 2,770 feet abo ...

. They trend in a north-south direction, and form the western perimeter of the north-south

Piute Valley The Piute Valley is a 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, ...

which extends north past Cal-Nev-Ari to

Searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

History

Fort Piute, one of a chain of military stations constructed to protect travellers on the

Mojave Road The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), 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 fr ...

from

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

across the

Fort Mojave Fort Mohave was originally named Camp Colorado when it was established on April 19, 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman during the Mohave War. It was located on the east bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's Crossing, near the head of ...

on 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 ...

, lies at the southeastern end of the range near Piute Spring.

4-Valley water divide, endorheic Mohave National Preserve

The southern end of the extensive

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 prim ...

converges with four valleys and three mountain ranges at a

water divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

point. West of the McCullough's lie the endorheic

Roach Roach or The Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * Cal ...

and

Ivanpah Dry Lake Ivanpah Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California on the border of California and Nevada. Nestled in the Ivanpah Valley near Primm on Interstate 15, the lake is almost entirely within California. At the no ...

s of

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 ...

; the valley extends north into Las Vegas' southwest, a tributary to the

Las Vegas Wash Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long stream (an "arroyo" or "wash") which feeds most of the Las Vegas Valley's excess water into Lake Mead. The wash is sometimes called an ''urban river'', and it exists in its present capacity because of an urban pop ...

. Ivanpah Valley turns southeast to meet the

point. Northeast of the water divide point is the southwest

Eldorado Valley Eldorado Valley, or El Dorado Valley, is a Great Basin valley in the Mojave Desert southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas and southwest of Boulder City, Nevada. The valley is endorheic, containing the Eldorado Dry Lake. The Great Basin Divide, ...

, also endorheic with its Eldorado Dry Lake. Southwest, the Piute Valley drains south, then

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

turns east and descends steeply at the

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 ...

to its outfall at the

and Needles. The

is mostly endorheic with the west bordering on

Baker, California Baker is a census-designated place located in San Bernardino County, California, US. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a total population of 442. Baker's ZIP Code is 92309 and the community is within area codes 442 and 760. History Baker w ...

and the twin dry lakes of Silver Dry Lake and Soda Dry Lake. The northeast preserve corner is anchored by the water divide point. The northeast borders of the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and smaller Castle Mountains meet the north of the Piute Range; to the west of the Piute's, east of the New York Mountains is the southerly draining endorheic

. The ''Piute Valley Watershed'' is the first major watershed southeast of Las Vegas to drain into the western side of the south-flowing Colorado River.

References

External links

Ghost Towns (and Historic Towns) of Mojave National Preserve)
Watersheds
Piute Wash Watershed, Nevada to California
- (Piute Valley)
Las Vegas Wash Watershed
- (Ivanpah Valley, in southwest) {{authority control Mojave National Preserve Piute Valley Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of San Bernardino County, California Mountain ranges of Clark County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Nevada Mountain ranges of Southern California Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of the Lower Colorado River Valley