Existing comment:
An Army of Caterpillars:
"... like an army of caterpillars crawling toward Mexico..." Thus in 1889 geologist C.E. Dutton described the mountains of the Great Basin. These parallel ranges separated by low basins such as Death Valley are almost all the product of earth movement along parallel fault zones. You will cross many of them between the Sierra Nevada and the Great Salt Lake.
The Panamint Range; the Black, Funeral, and Grapevine Mountains; and the Spring Mountains -- on the horizon to your right -- are typical Great Basin ranges. |