The hills you see in that pic are pretty much sagebrush, sand, and juniper. But, beyond that are the Sierras, we are pretty close to the base of them. About 40 min from Lake Tahoe. In the Sierras if you are really lucky you can find some pretty interesting stuff. This is probably the coolest. It's a parasitic plant Sarcodes sanguinea, I've only seen one and was lucky enough to have a camera with me. You can see the hot pink spec in the bottom center of this pic.
And a close up
And a close up 
