Macks Peak is a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in

Clark County Clark County may refer to: *Clark County, Arkansas *Clark County, Idaho *Clark County, Illinois *Clark County, Indiana *Clark County, Kansas *Clark County, Kentucky *Clark County, Missouri *Clark County, Nevada, containing Las Vegas *Clark County, ...

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 ...

, United States.

Description

Macks Peak is part of the

Spring Mountains The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of Southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the Uni ...

which are a subrange of the Great Basin Ranges. The peak is located northwest 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 ...

in the

Mount Charleston Wilderness The Mount Charleston Wilderness Area is located west of Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas in the southern part of the state of Nevada in the western United States. It was created by the Congress of the United States, U.S. Congress in 1989 under the p ...

, on land managed by the

Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest The Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest (HTNF) is the principal National forest (United States), U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Nevada, and has a smaller portion further west in Eastern California in the state of California. With an a ...

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as the summit rises nearly above Macks Canyon in . This mountain's toponym has not been officially adopted by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, however Macks Canyon has been. Macks Peak 1

Climate

Macks Peak is set within the

Great Basin Desert The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range in the western United States. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife ...

which has hot summers and cold winters. The desert is an example of a

cold desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

as the desert's elevation makes temperatures cooler than lower elevation deserts. Due to the high elevation and aridity, temperatures drop sharply after sunset. Summer nights are comfortably cool. Winter highs are generally above freezing, and winter nights are bitterly cold, with temperatures often dropping well below freezing.

Climbing

An ascent of the peak involves hiking and scrambling (round-trip) with of elevation gain.Branch Whitney (1997), ''Hiking Las Vegas: 60 Hikes Within 60 Minutes of the Strip'', Huntington Press, , p. 75. Access is via the Macks Canyon Road from Highway 156.

References

{{Reflist Mountains of Clark County, Nevada Mountains of Nevada Spring Mountains Three-thousanders of the United States Mountains of the Great Basin Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest

Description

Climate

Climbing

See also

References