Great Basin is a large desert region in the western United States. It has several lakes and streams. Water in the streams either dries up or empties into one of the lakes, where it evaporates. The Great Basin is a region of interior drainage because its streams drain inside the area rather than into bodies of water outside the area.
The basin covers about 200,000 square miles (520,000 square kilometers) in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Desert shrubs cover the basin. Trees are limited to the high mountains that encircle the area and to mountain ranges that rise within it. Sinks (low areas that may hold water) lie in some valleys. The largest are the Great Salt Lake, Carson and Humboldt sinks, and Pyramid Lake. The basin’s deepest depression is Death Valley in California.
