Nevada, meaning snow-capped in Spanish, seems very appropriate for this White Mountains scene. Known as the most mountainous state in the Lower 48, Nevada is mostly desert, lying in the rain shadows of some of the tallest peaks of the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range. Here on the border with California, the White Mountains are a triangular shaped fault block range, sucking the moisture from any eastbound weather system. Located east of California's Owens Valley, the White Mountains are locked in by the Excelsior Mountains to the north and the Silver Peak Range to the south.
   Boundary Peak, the tallest of all the Nevada mountain peaks, lends its name to the Boundary Peak Wilderness located among the White Mountains. Dwarfed by the size of the seventh largest state in America, the remote Boundary Peak Wilderness covers a mere 10,000 acres. Rising up from the Columbus Salt Marsh in the east, these granite mountain slopes are home to bighorn sheep, mule deer, marmots and wild horses. In a region where sparse vegetation on the lower elevations is the norm, sub alpine forests cover the upper slopes in bristlecone pines, limber pines and small remnants of lodgepole, Ponderosa, and Jeffrey pines.
   All in all, the White Mountains make up a pretty impressive range, topped by 14,252 foot White Mountain Peak, the third tallest peak in California. To the north, six more summits reach 13,000 feet, with Nevada's Boundary Peak heading the prow of this triangular shaped mountain range.

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