LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Great Basin
built 654 days ago
The Great Basin is a land of high valleys and north/south trending mountain ranges that lies between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the west. Most of the region lies just below or just above a mile high. In just a few miles one can travel from valley floors around 4,500 feet to mountain tops over 11,000 feet and higher. This diversity of topography has given rise to a mosaic of habitats that provide both home and refuge to a great variety of plant species. The rain-shadow created by the Sierra Nevada is felt throughout the area except on the tops of the highest mountain ranges. Influenced by Pacific storms in the winter and spring, monsoonal rains in the middle to late summer, and occasional cold, Arctic outbreaks in the depths of winter a climate of great extremes has come to characterize the region.
Source:
The Great Basin is a huge inland basin that covers parts of six western states. Most of Nevada, a large part of Utah, parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and California are in the Great Basin. Elevation ranges from 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley to 13,000 feet at the summit of Mount Wheeler in Eastern Nevada. Average annual rainfall ranges from over 40 inches in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah to 1.5 inches at Death Valley. Hot summers and cold winters characterize most of the Basin. Floristic assemblage range from alpine tundra, windswept ridges, conifer forests, mountain meadows and brush lands, sagebrush and salt deserts scrub, barren playa, crevice communities, sand dunes, to riparian habitat.
Source:
The Great Basin is effectively cut off from the westerly flow of Pacific moisture. Orographic uplift of crossing air masses by the Sierra and the Cascades provides cooling and precipitates much of the moisture out. The result is a BSk (Dry Steppe cold) climate classification for most of the Basin in the Koeppen system. The climate is typical of middle latitude, semi-arid lands where evaporation potential exceeds precipitation throughout the year. There is no water surplus or stream originating in such a climate, and mean annual temperatures are under 64.4 degreesF (18 degrees C). Oases occur where highlands generate surface streams or springs.
Source:
The early emigrant trails and cutoffs across the Great Basin branched off the Oregon Trail at South Pass, Wyoming. The Salt Lake–Los Angeles road turned southwest at Salt Lake, continued to the Virgin River, and extended southwest over the Old Spanish Trail. At the Virgin River, William's short route, or light-hand road, turned west across Nevada to Death Valley. Another important offshoot, the Humboldt Trail, crossed the Forty-Mile desert to the Carson River and from there followed mountain passes into California. The Great Basin was threaded with ramifications of these trails and cutoffs and was heavily traveled by early emigrants.
Source:
Great Basin is best explored by hiking. The park has 12 trails ranging from 0.3 miles to 13.1 miles. Trails range from short nature trails at 6,825 feet (Mountain View Nature Trail), to the Wheeler summit trail starting at 10,160 feet. The Wheeler Summit trail is quite strenuous, and the altitude presents significant hazards for unprepared or inexperienced hikers. Backcountry routes are occasionally maintained throughout the more remote southern portion of the park. A number of these trailheads are accessible by the dirt road that terminates at the primitive Shoshone campground.
Source:
The Great Basin is characterized by a series of north-south running mountain ranges separated by relatively flat basins. The highest peaks in these ranges are over 13,000 feet, while the lowest points in the basins are about 4000 feet. Due to the "rain-shadow" effect from the Sierra Nevada, the Great Basin is very arid, with annual precipitation varying from approximately 4 inches per year to 10 inches per year, although the highest peaks can see significantly more precipitation. Most of this precipitation occurs in the form of snow in the winter, and is ... not available to plant life during the growing season. The predominant vegetation is sagebrush and shadscale in the lower elevations, dispersed Pinon-Juniper woodland at middle elevations, and Bristlecone and Limber Pine just below the alpine zone. Runoff collects in "playa" (dry lake-beds) or in a few cases year-round lakes and from there evaporates.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Great Basin