At 11,312 feet, Monarch Crest is the highest point on Route 50. It is on the Continental Divide, which runs north along the Rocky Mountains to the Alaskan shore and the Bering Strait, and south along the Andes Mountains to Chile and the Strait of Magellan.
The Mississippi River watershed, through which Route 50 has been traveling for over 1,600 miles, ends here. Throughout that vast distance, any drop of water that falls from the sky and succeeds in not getting evaporated, sucked up by a plant, or drunk by an animal will eventually reach the Mississippi River and, ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean.
A few yards to the west (see photo below), rain drops will be bound for the Pacific Ocean.
