Looking toward California

Westward view from the summit (~7841 ft/ 2390 m) of Petersen Mountain northeast of Reno, Nevada. The prominent highway running more or less horizontally across the pic is US 395. The highway coming in at an acute angle from the upper right is California State Route 70, meeting 395 at Hallelujah Junction, California (note), where there's a gas station and convenience store. The Nevada-California state line lies somewhere on the flank of the mountain below here--despite what Google thinks, we're still in Nevada here. The low pass that CA 70 crosses in the middle distance is Beckwourth Pass, named for Jim Beckwourth, an early explorer/mountain man who, unusually, was African-American. Beckwourth Pass marks the drainage divide between the Great Basin, in the foreground, and the Feather River drainage in California, which flows to the Sacramento in the Central Valley. The valley beyond, which 70 crosses, is Sierra Valley. The tips of the Sierra Buttes are just visible on the skyline to the left (note).

Altho the summit is rather ill-defined--Petersen Mountain is a long north-south ridge--there was a summit register (note in upper left)! Yes, we signed it.