Tiny college home to rare California toad Endangered critter gets help from Deep Springs College By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Published: April 23, 2021, 6:06am Share: The endangered black toad has the smallest range of any amphibian in North America: a mere 400 acres on the remote Deep Springs College campus nestled between the Inyo and White mountain ranges in Inyo County, Calif. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Time) DEEP SPRINGS VALLEY, Calif. — When you’re as rare and vulnerable as a black toad, you can’t afford to be coy about romance. Surrounded by an unforgiving desert and forever isolated on a small patch of irrigated ranchland about 50 miles southeast of Yosemite National Park, black toads inhabit the smallest range of any North American amphibian.