Eldorado Valley, or El Dorado Valley, is a Great Basin valley in the

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 i ...

southeast of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

and southwest of

Boulder City, Nevada Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately southeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2020 census, the population of Boulder City was 14,885. The city took its name from Boulder Canyon. Boulder City is one of on ...

. The valley is

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic 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 drainage converges instead into lakes ...

, 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 In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

, on the Great Basin Divide at its north terminus and its south terminus.

Geography

The north end of the valley contains a large salt pan, or

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceeds recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline c ...

Dry Lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceeds recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline c ...

or Eldorado Playa, while the southern two thirds drains northwards. 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 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. The Piute Wash watershed and Piut ...

Watershed'', of the north-south Piute Valley. The Piute Wash drains south, then southeast to the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat

The southern valley includes a

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and 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 ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

for the

Desert Bighorn Sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. Th ...

, named the 'Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat'. There are no public access routes into the habitat area, to protect the Bighorn. File:McCullough Mountain from Eldorado Valley 1.jpg, Valley's center-south, from east side.
(North end of Highland Range (from east-southeast), McCullough Range

beyond.)

Solar power

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. Since 2007, it is also home to the

concentrated solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when ...

plant, Nevada Solar One, as well as a growing number of

photovoltaic power stations A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

, including: *

Copper Mountain Solar Facility The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 802 megawatt (MW AC) solar photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, Nevada, United States. The plant was developed by Sempra Generation. When the first unit of the facility entered service on Dece ...

* Boulder Solar Project * Techren Solar Project

References

External links

Las Vegas Wash WatershedHavasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed
*Eldorado Playa, Geomicrobiological Changes (coord)
Eldorado Dry Lake, Eldorado Valley Flyers.com-(elevation 1750ft)
Endorheic basins of the United States Valleys of the Mojave Desert Valleys of Clark County, Nevada Valleys of Nevada Protected areas of the Mojave Desert {{ClarkCountyNV-geo-stub