Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, USA April 1998 This photograph shows one of the United States’ fastest growing metropolitan areas —Las Vegas. The city lies in a valley surrounded by the Spring Mountains (to the west), the Sheep Range (to the north), Muddy Mountains (to the northeast), and the McCullough Range (to the south). The snow-capped Spring Mountains include Mt. Charleston (11,918 feet—3633 meters above sea level), a favorite tourist spot located forty miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas. The lighter colored, connected diamond shapes northwest of the urban area are a series of dry washes and salt pans with virtually no vegetation. The dark feature along the eastern edge (bottom middle) of the image is the western end of Lake Mead. Detailed infrastructure of the city is not visible at this scale, except the white V-shaped runways of McCarran International Airport (on the south edge of the built-up area) and the overall gridded street pattern