State guide

Nevada Nature Guide

Nevada is the driest state in the nation and one of the most vertical — a corrugated landscape of north-south mountain ranges separated by sagebrush basins, where the cold Great Basin in the north gives way to the hot Mojave Desert in the south. That range packs ancient bristlecone pines on 13,000-foot Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park, the alpine Ruby Mountains, the spring-fed wetland oases of Ruby Lake and the Lahontan Valley on the Pacific Flyway, and the red sandstone and Joshua trees of Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas. USDA hardiness zones run from a frigid 4b in the high ranges and the cold Great Basin north to a hot 9b in the low Mojave valleys around Las Vegas and Laughlin.