Santa Cruz is a county in southern Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population is 47,669. The county seat is Nogales. The county was established in 1899. It borders Pima County to the north and west, Cochise County to the east, and the Mexican state of Sonora to the south.
The Coronado National Forest is a United States National Forest that includes an area of about 1.78 million acres (7,200 km2) spread throughout mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
The Santa Catalina Mountains, commonly referred to as the Catalina Mountains or the Catalinas, are north and northeast of Tucson in Arizona, United States, on Tucson's north perimeter. The mountain range is the most prominent in the Tucson area, with the highest average elevation. The highest point in the Catalinas is Mount Lemmon at an elevation of 9,157 feet (2,791 m) above sea level and receives 18 inches (46 cm) of precipitation annually.
The Rincon Mountains are a significant mountain range east of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, in the United States. The Rincon Mountains are one of five mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson valley. The other ranges include the most prominent, the Santa Catalina Mountains to the north, the Santa Rita Mountains to the south, the Tucson Mountains to the west, and the Tortolita Mountains to the northwest. Redington Pass separates the Rincon Mountains from the Santa Catalina Mountains. The Rincon Mountains are generally less rugged than the Santa Catalina Mountains and Santa Rita Mountains. The Rincon Mountains are also included in the Madrean sky island mountain ranges of southeast Arizona, extreme southwest New Mexico, and northern Sonora Mexico.
The Santa Cruz River is a tributary river to the Gila River in Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. It is approximately 184 miles (296 km) long.
Sonoita Creek is a tributary stream of the Santa Cruz River in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. It originates near and takes its name from the abandoned Pima mission in the high valley near Sonoita. It flows steadily for the first 15 miles (24 km) of its westward course past Patagonia, its bird sanctuary and Patagonia Lake, but sinks beneath the sand seven to eight miles before joining the Santa Cruz River a few miles north of Nogales. This confluence provides water for Tumacácori and Tubac and collects in the marsh lands around San Xavier del Bac downstream, to the north. The Santa Rita Mountains lie to the north and the Canelo Hills, Red Mountain and the Patagonia Mountains lie to the south. Harshaw Creek is a southern tributary which joins the Sonoita near Patagonia. Harshaw Creek drains the area between the Patagonia Mountains to the west and the high San Rafael Valley grasslands to the east. The ghost town of Harshaw lies within its watershed.
The Huachuca Mountains are part of the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, approximately 70 miles (110 km) south-southeast of Tucson and southwest of the city of Sierra Vista. Included in this area is the highest peak in the Huachucas, Miller Peak, and the region of the Huachucas known as Canelo Hills in eastern Santa Cruz County. The mountains range in elevation from 3,934 feet (1,199 m) at the base to 9,466 feet (2,885 m) at the top of Miller Peak. The second highest peak in this range is Carr Peak, elevation 9,200 feet (2,804 m). The Huachuca Mountain area is managed principally by the United States Forest Service (41%) and the U.S. Army (20%), with much of the rest being private land (32%). Sierra Vista is the main population center.
The Cerro Colorado Mountains are a low mountain range in southern Pima County, Arizona, USA. The highest point of the range is Colorado Peak. The range consists of a NNW–SSE trending ridge with several shorter ridges extending off the main ridge to the ENE. The higher portions of the range cover an area of about 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi), with dimensions of 6.8 km (4.2 mi) by 4.0 km (2.5 mi).
The Altar Valley is a 45-mile (72 km) long north–south valley, trending slightly northeast from Sasabe, Arizona on the Mexico border to the Avra Valley west of the Tucson Mountains. It is delimited by Arizona State Route 86, from east-to-west on the north separating it from the Avra Valley which then trends northwesterly, merging into the plains and drainage of the Santa Cruz River.
The Patagonia Mountains are a 15-mile-long (24 km) mountain range within the Coronado National Forest, and in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States.
The Atascosa Mountains is a mountain range in western Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. It is sandwiched between the larger Tumacacori Mountains to the north, and a small east–west border range to the south, the Pajarito Mountains; the Pajaritos are on the U.S.–Mexico border and abut the Sierra La Esmeralda range in northern Sonora.
The Sierra La Esmeralda range, are a mountain range in northern Sonora, Mexico at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera. The region contains sky island mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands, some separated from the Sierra Madre Occidental proper, and occurring in the northeastern Sonoran Desert, and extreme west-northwestern Chihuahuan Desert. Many of the ranges occur in southeast Arizona.
The San Luis Mountains are a small, lower elevation mountain range of central-southern Pima County Arizona adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border, northeast of Sasabe, Arizona–Sasabe, Sonora.
The Galiuro Mountains are a large sky island mountain range of southeast Arizona, United States. It is a northerly mountain range in the Madrean Sky Islands region of southeast Arizona, northern Sonora in northwestern Mexico, and the extreme southwest of New Mexico.
Aravaipa Creek is a drainage between three mountain ranges in southwest Graham County, Arizona – the Galiuro Mountains, the Santa Teresa Mountains and the Pinaleno Mountains. These mountains are part of the high altitude Madrean Sky Islands located in southern Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and northern Sonora and Chihuahua states in Mexico.
The Las Guijas Mountains are a small northwest–southeast trending mountain range in southern Pima County, Arizona. The range is approximately 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) long by 4 km (2.5 mi). Surrounding ranges includes the Cerro Colorado Mountains to the northeast, the Tumacacori Mountains of Santa Cruz County to the east, the San Luis Mountains to the south and the Baboquivari Mountains across the Altar Valley to the west. Arivaca is immediately to the southeast and the old mining townsite of Las Guijas is in the wash just north of the range.
The Tumacacori Mountains is a mountain range in Santa Cruz and Pima counties in southern Arizona, United States. The highest peak in the range is an unnamed summit with an elevation of 5,736 feet (1,748 m).
Pajarita Wilderness is a protected wilderness area managed by the Coronado National Forest in the U.S. state of Arizona. Established in 1984 under the Arizona Wilderness Act, the array of canyons that make up the area sit at the western end of the Pajarito Mountains, and form a well-known migration route for birds. Sycamore Canyon is the centerpiece of the wilderness, a riparian forest that supports more than 160 bird species.
