Amargosa Desert

Amargosa Desert
Amargosa Desert near the Bullfrog Hills
Name origin: Amargosa River
Country	United States
State	Nevada and California
Region	Great Basin
County	Nye and Inyo
Borders on	west: Funeral Mountains & Yucca Mountain east: Nellis Air Force Range
Parts	Franklin Lake Playa
River	Amargosa
Elevation	2,411 ft (735 m)
Area	2,600 sq mi (6,734 km2) including: 1981 sq mi of Amargosa River Basin 600 sq mi of Amargosa Valley
Geology	Crater Flat
Timezone	Pacific (UTC-8)
- summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
The Amargosa Desert is near Death Valley

The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border. It is largely coincident with the geographic Amargosa Valley.

The desert is named after the Amargosa River, so-named for the Spanish word for bitter because of the bitter taste of the water.

Geography

The Amargosa Desert lies at an elevation of about 2,600 to 2,750 feet (790 to 840 m), and includes Crater Flat and the community of Amargosa Valley, Nevada, (formerly Lathrop Wells), which lies at the southern end of the desert.

The desert lies between the Funeral Mountains and Death Valley to the west, and Yucca Mountain and the Nellis Air Force Range to the east.

Natural history

The Amargosa Desert is an arid desert habitat and an ecotone between the northern Great Basin and southern Mojave Desert ecosystems and biogeography regions. The seasonal Amargosa River course runs through the desert, with the rare Shoshone pupfish in nearby Amargosa Pupfish Station of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex.