A broad flat valley runs down the center of the state east of the Coastal Mountains and west of the higher Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Known as the Central Valley, this once arid desert plain is now some of the richest farmlands in the USA thanks to the liberal use of irrigation. The Central Valley is 50 to 100 miles wide (90 - 150 km) and is covered with farms, orchards and vineyards.

The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range forms a 400-mile long north-south wall of snow-capped peaks approximately 100 miles east of the Pacific shoreline.

Much of the mountainous area is preserved as natural wilderness with few roads and limited access. From Bakersfield, just east of Los Angeles, to Yosemite, nearly 200 miles north, there is no road traversing this range from east to west. Approaching the mountains from the west, takes you through 50 miles of escalating hills and forested slopes before you reach the snow capped ridges. From the east, the snowcapped peaks rise almost directly from the floor of the desert to form a spectacular wall of granite extending from horizon to horizon.

A narrow strip of California lies east of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in a parched rain-shadow desert with waterless mountains and desiccated valleys. This is the beginning of the barren Basin and Range Country that extend through the state of Nevada. It includes the vast wasteland of the Mojave Desert and the austere beauty of Death Valley.