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Carson Range

Mountain range in the United States

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The Carson Range is a spur of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California and western Nevada that starts at Carson Pass and stretches north to the Truckee River near Verdi, Nevada.

01Geography

The mountain range is about 50 miles (80 km) long and 5-10 miles (8-16 km) wide, with 3/4 of the range lying within the state of Nevada. The Carson Range, along with its parent the Sierra Nevada, together cast a rain shadow over the Greater Reno Area and Carson City.

Unlike the main crest of the Sierra Nevada to the west of Lake Tahoe, the Carson Range loses its snow much earlier (April), and gains it much later (December). In fact, it receives about half the snowfall as mountains west of the lake. Meltwater from the range feeds into the Truckee River and West Fork Carson River, as well as Lake Tahoe and Marlette Lake.

Principal Mountains
Mountain Elevation
Freel Peak 10,881 feet (3,317 m)
Jobs Sister 10,823 feet (3,299 m)
Mount Rose 10,776 feet (3,285 m)
Jobs Peak 10,633 feet (3,241 m)
Slide Mountain 9,698 feet (2,956 m)
East Peak 9,593 feet (2,924 m)
Snow Valley Peak 9,214 feet (2,808 m)
US 50 traverses the western slopes of the Carson Range.
US 50 traverses the western slopes of the Carson Range.

02Transportation

The western slopes of the range form the eastern shoreline of Lake Tahoe, along which US 50 and NV 28 form a partial ring road around Lake Tahoe.

Travel between Lake Tahoe and Carson City is possible via US 50 over Spooner Summit, or NV 207 over Daggett Pass. Winding through the northern half of the range lies NV 431, connecting Incline Village to Reno over Mount Rose Summit.

The Tahoe Rim Trail traverses this mountain range.

Watch videos about Carson RangeExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Carson Range, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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