Mountain Pass, California
Mountain Pass, California is a small, unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County.
It is fifteen miles southwest of the California-Nevada border and the city of Primm, Nevada.
With an elevation of over 4,700 feet, Mountain Pass is the highest point on Interstate 15 when driving between the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Despite being in the Mojave Desert, its elevation causes it to receive more precipitation than the desert's low lying areas and it supports more plant life.
Creosote scrub and Joshua trees grow near the pass.
Mountain Pass has a cooler climate than the surrounding desert valleys.
Average high temperatures in the summer are near 90 degrees with low temperatures in the 60s.
This is about twelve degrees color than average temperatures in Las Vegas, which is less than an hour's drive to the northeast.
Daytime highs in the winter are typically in the 50s with lows averaging slightly below freezing.
The pass area receives an average of eight inches of precipitation per year.
In the winter, it receives occasional snow with an average amount of nine inches of snowfall per year.
Mountain Pass is home to one of the world's largest rare earth mineral deposits.
The Molycorp Minerals Mine is now mostly inactive at the pass.
The area has deposits of the mineral bastnasite, from which the materials used to make the red light in cathode ray tube ("CRT") screens can be extracted.
The mine is now mostly inactive due to environmental concerns.
However, due to the increasing demand for these rare earth metals, there are plans in place to resume full mine operations by 2012.
Traveling north on Interstate 15 from Mountain Pass, the road drops gradually down to the Ivanpah Valley.
The drive offers nice views of the Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed, which lies at an elevation of about 2,600 feet.
The city of Primm, with its towering casinos at the Nevada border can be seen on descent.
Mountain Pass also sits at the southern edge of the Clark Mountain Range.
The range extends for about fifteen miles in a southwest-northeasterly direction.
Its tallest peak, Clark Mountain, at 7,933 feet, is five miles northwest of the pass.
Pinyon pines, juniper, and rare white fir trees grow at the higher elevations.
Clark Mountain is also a popular rock climbing area.
Its exposed limestone rock attracts climbers from all over.
It is fifteen miles southwest of the California-Nevada border and the city of Primm, Nevada.
With an elevation of over 4,700 feet, Mountain Pass is the highest point on Interstate 15 when driving between the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Despite being in the Mojave Desert, its elevation causes it to receive more precipitation than the desert's low lying areas and it supports more plant life.
Creosote scrub and Joshua trees grow near the pass.
Mountain Pass has a cooler climate than the surrounding desert valleys.
Average high temperatures in the summer are near 90 degrees with low temperatures in the 60s.
This is about twelve degrees color than average temperatures in Las Vegas, which is less than an hour's drive to the northeast.
Daytime highs in the winter are typically in the 50s with lows averaging slightly below freezing.
The pass area receives an average of eight inches of precipitation per year.
In the winter, it receives occasional snow with an average amount of nine inches of snowfall per year.
Mountain Pass is home to one of the world's largest rare earth mineral deposits.
The Molycorp Minerals Mine is now mostly inactive at the pass.
The area has deposits of the mineral bastnasite, from which the materials used to make the red light in cathode ray tube ("CRT") screens can be extracted.
The mine is now mostly inactive due to environmental concerns.
However, due to the increasing demand for these rare earth metals, there are plans in place to resume full mine operations by 2012.
Traveling north on Interstate 15 from Mountain Pass, the road drops gradually down to the Ivanpah Valley.
The drive offers nice views of the Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed, which lies at an elevation of about 2,600 feet.
The city of Primm, with its towering casinos at the Nevada border can be seen on descent.
Mountain Pass also sits at the southern edge of the Clark Mountain Range.
The range extends for about fifteen miles in a southwest-northeasterly direction.
Its tallest peak, Clark Mountain, at 7,933 feet, is five miles northwest of the pass.
Pinyon pines, juniper, and rare white fir trees grow at the higher elevations.
Clark Mountain is also a popular rock climbing area.
Its exposed limestone rock attracts climbers from all over.
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