The Virgin Mountains is a range northeast of Lake Mead

Lake Mead

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by water impounded by the Hoover Dam, it extends behind the dam, holding approximately of water.-History:The lake was...

 about 10 to 16 miles south of the town of Mesquite, Nevada

Mesquite, Nevada

Mesquite is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the Arizona state line and northeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 15,277. The city is located in the Virgin River Valley...

. Located in the Lower Colorado-Lake Mead

Lake Mead

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by water impounded by the Hoover Dam, it extends behind the dam, holding approximately of water.-History:The lake was...

 watershed (USGS Huc

Hydrological code

A hydrological code or hydrologic unit code is a sequence of numbers or letters that identify a hydrological feature like a river, river reach, lake, or area like a drainage basin ....

 1501), 91.6% of the range is managed by the Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...

. The range has many species of lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

s, as well as the Panamint rattlesnake

Panamint rattlesnake

Crotalus mitchellii stephensi is a venomous pitviper subspecies found in southern Nevada and adjacent California.-Description:Adults are 58-132 cm in length, with an average of 60-91 cm....

 and glossy snake

Glossy snake

Arizona elegans is a medium-sized colubrid snake commonly referred to as the glossy snake. The genus Arizona has only one officially recognized species, A. elegans, with several subspecies. Some have recommended that A...

. Trees found in the range include singleleaf pinyon pines, Arizona cypress

Cupressus arizonica

Cupressus arizonica, the Arizona Cypress, is a species of cypress native to the southwest of North America, in the United States in Arizona, southwest New Mexico, southern California, and the Chisos Mountains of west Texas, and in Mexico in Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas and...

, white and Douglas fir, and Utah and Rocky Mountain junipers.