Watershed
The river flows through two major valleys of the extreme southwestern Great Basin – the Long Valley and Owens Valley. The north to south drainage basin is in portions of Mono and Inyo Counties and terminates in the now-dry Owens Lake. To the northwest of the valley is the Long Valley Caldera which is only a fraction of the size of the Owens Valley. The Owens River enters Owens Valley from the northwest, while the Spring Valley Wash drains the northernmost part of the valley, extending a tiny portion of the basin into Nevada. The river flows mainly on the east side of the valley, because alluvial deposits from Sierra Nevada streams have forced the river channel in that direction.
Vertical relief in the basin is immense – elevations range from 14,494 feet (4,418 m) at Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States, to 3,556 feet (1,084 m) on the surface of Owens Lake. The Owens River itself heads at an elevation of 7,291 feet (2,222 m). Few people inhabit the sparse, open grasslands and steep mountainsides of the watershed; the 2009 population of Mono County was about 12,927 while Inyo County had some 17,293 inhabitants. The largest city on the river is Bishop, with a population of slightly less than 3,600. Other significant towns include Lone Pine (population 1,655), Big Pine (population 1,350), and Independence (population 574).
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