Great Basin  The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Oregon and Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, and Wyoming. It is noted for both its arid climate and the basin and range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin in Death Valley to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the summit of Mount Whitney. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes, ecoregions, and deserts. The term "Great Basin" is applied to hydrographic, biological, floristic, physiographic, topographic, and ethnographic geographic areas. The name was originally coined by John C. Fremont, who, based on information gleaned from Joseph R. Walker as well as his own travels, recognized the hydrographic nature of the landform as "having no connection to the ocean". The hydrographic definition is the most commonly used, and is the only one with a definitive border. The other definitions yield not only different geographical boundaries of "Great Basin" regions, but regional borders that vary from source to source. The "Great Basin Desert" is defined by plant and animal communities, and, according to the National Park Service, its boundaries approximate the hydrographic Great Basin, but exclude the southern "panhandle". The "Great Basin Floristic Province" was defined by botanist Armen Takhtajan to extend well beyond the boundaries of the hydrographically defined Great Basin: it includes the Snake River Plain, the Colorado Plateau, the Uinta Basin, and parts of Arizona north of the Mogollon Rim. The "Great Basin physiographic section" is a geographic division of the Basin and Range Province defined by Nevin Fenneman in 1931. The United States Geological Survey adapted Fenneman's scheme in their Physiographic division of the United States. The "section" is somewhat larger than the hydrographic definition. The "Great Basin Culture Area" or indigenous peoples of the Great Basin is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The culture area covers approximately , or just less than twice the area of the hydrographic Great Basin. The hydrographic Great Basin is a area that drains internally. All precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes (mostly saline). As observed by Fremont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean.