{"id":574309,"date":"2026-04-09T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574309\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:52:10","slug":"nevada-isnt-just-desert-it-has-the-most-mountain-ranges-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574309\/","title":{"rendered":"Nevada isn’t just desert. It has the most mountain ranges in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

If you tell someone from out of state you’re from Nevada, they probably picture vast expanses of wide-open, flat desert.<\/p>\n

But that picture in the out-of-towner’s mind couldn’t be further from the truth. Drive across the Silver State and you’ll see something entirely different \u2014 mountain range after mountain range after mountain range, as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n

Amazing America 250: Nevada isn’t just desert. It has the most mountain ranges in the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In fact, Nevada has over 300 distinct mountain ranges, more than any state in the U.S.<\/p>\n

It’s like a series of caterpillars crawling across the landscape.<\/p>\n

“If you’re anywhere in Nevada, you can see a mountain, and that’s not necessarily true for just about any other state,” said Jim Faulds, UNR geosciences professor. “In terms of overall relief, places like Alaska or even California have more topographic relief on some of their mountain ranges. They get higher in elevation, but Nevada really has more of these main mountain ranges than any other state.”<\/p>\n

That distinct ‘up-and-down’ geography comes from Nevada\u2019s location in what\u2019s known as the Basin and Range Province.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A topographic map showing mountain ranges of Nevada.<\/p>\n

Faulds said Nevada’s unique landscape started to be molded tens of millions of years ago as a result of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates sliding past each other. <\/p>\n

“This region actually accommodates around 25% of the plate boundary motion between the Pacific and North American plates,” he said. “The crust is being extended, pulled apart, stretched in Nevada … that stretching has basically left a lot of marks on the landscape. The crust has broken up. Faults have formed. And so that’s created all of the mountain ranges in Nevada.”<\/p>\n

We’re actually adding two acres to Nevada every single year. So we’re the fastest growing state, tectonically speaking.\"Still<\/p>\n

Still of an animation showing how Nevada has been stretched apart in geologic history as the Pacific and North American plates move. (Courtesy: Tanya Atwater, UCSB)<\/p>\n

Of course, the landscape has directly shaped where humans settled, with Nevadans mostly choosing the basins between the mountain ranges due to the proximity to fresh water.<\/p>\n

“There’s better groundwater available, rivers flowing through those basins that can be tapped for civilization,” Faulds said.<\/p>\n

But our settlements are surrounded by a mountainous playground that is a key and growing sector of Nevada’s modern-day economy, said Elisabeth Johnson, deputy administrator with the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation.<\/p>\n

\"Humans<\/p>\n

Humans tended to settle in Nevada’s basins for easy access to water. This shot shows Stead, north of Reno, as seen on April 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

“It is pretty wide open with over 80% of the state being public land, which really allows everybody to get out and discover new corners of the state,” Johnson said. “Outdoor recreation actually just surpassed mining, if you believe it or not, for economic input to the state.”<\/p>\n

(Outdoor recreation) is a $2.4 billion industry for our state.<\/p>\n

From backcountry skiing and snowmobiling to horseback riding, rock climbing, kayaking and trail running \u2014 the opportunities are nearly endless. So while Nevada is known for its desert landscape, the desert is surrounded by mountains in every direction. It’s a mountainous playground, with new adventures just over the next hill.<\/p>\n

Have an idea for our Amazing America 250 series? Email news@mynews4.com and put ‘Amazing America 250’ in the subject line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you tell someone from out of state you’re from Nevada, they probably picture vast expanses of wide-open,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-574309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}