Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada. The mountains on either side (including Mount Whitney) reach above 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is at 4,000 feet (1,200 m), making the valley one of the deepest in the United States. The Sierra Nevada casts the valley in a rain shadow, which makes Owens Valley “the land of little rain.”[3] The bed of Owens Lake, now a dry alkali flat, sits on the southern end of the valley.
The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third of the water for Los Angeles, and is infamous as the scene of one of the fiercest and longest running episodes of the California Water Wars. These episodes inspired aspects of the film Chinatown.
Towns in the Owens Valley include Bishop, Lone Pine, Independence and Big Pine. The major road in the valley is U.S. Route 395.
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