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Poachie Range | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Peak | Arrastra Mountain |
Elevation | 4,807 ft (1,465 m) |
Coordinates | 34°25′16″N113°22′56″W / 34.4211304°N 113.3821463°W |
Dimensions | |
Length | 28 mi (45 km)(E-W) |
Width | 8 mi (13 km) |
Geography | |
Poachie Range in Arizona | |
Country | United States |
State | Arizona |
Regions | Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert |
Counties | Mohave and Yavapai |
Settlements | Wikieup and Nothing |
Range coordinates | 34°28′09″N113°29′11″W / 34.4691844°N 113.4863171°W Coordinates: 34°28′09″N113°29′11″W / 34.4691844°N 113.4863171°W |
Borders on | Rawhide Mountains, Dutch Flat, Hualapai Mountains, Black Mountains, Alamo Lake State Park, Buckskin Mtns, Butler Valley and U.S. Route 93 |
The Poachie Range is a moderate length mountain range and massif in southeast Mohave County, Arizona, and the extreme southwest corner of Yavapai County; the range also abuts the northeast corner of La Paz County. The Poachie Range massif is bordered by the south-flowing Big Sandy River on its west, and the west-flowing Santa Maria River on its south; both rivers converge at the Poachie Range's southwest at Alamo Lake in Alamo Lake State Park.
From Alamo Lake, the (short) Bill Williams River flows due west for 35 mi to meet the Colorado River. The Bill Williams River is the de facto border between the Mojave Desert north and northwest; the Sonoran Desert is south and southeast. Across the south-flowing Colorado River to the west, is the massif of the Whipple Mountains at the northeast of the Sonoran Desert subsection named the Colorado Desert of southern California and bordered by the Colorado River.
The entire region south of the Poachie Range, and its two mountain ranges bordered westwards, the Rawhide and Bill Williams Mountain, and bordered on the Bill Williams River northern bank — is the Maria fold and thrust belt. The thrust belt is a geographic and geologic region at the convergence of these neighboring mountain ranges, rivers, the Alamo Lake, as well as other plains and valleys.
The Poachie Range is approximately 30 mi long slightly trending northwest by southeast, with no central ridgeline. Instead the range is made up of a central canyon draining southwest. The west-northwest contains a small canyon, and various peaks, three peaks west of the south-flowing Big Sandy River. Signal, Arizona with only unimproved road access is at the northwest foothills, about 10 mi from U.S. Route 93.
The east and southeast of the range contains People's Canyon, about 5 mi long, and the west-flowing Santa Maria River; to the southeast the river borders the northwest of the smaller range, the Black Mountains.
The highpoint of the range is Arrastra Mountain, 4,807 feet (1,465 m), [1] located at 34°18′45″N113°18′48″W / 34.31252°N 113.31325°W . [2] Arrastra Mountain is at the range center, 3 mi northeast of the 'range ridgeline' and 4 mi southwest of U.S. Route 93 in Arizona (the Joshua Tree Highway).
The Arrastra Mountain Wilderness comprises almost 100% of the Poachie Range. Both the Big Sandy and Santa Maria Rivers are mostly contained in the wilderness, as well as People's Canyon in the east.
The entire northeast of the range is accessed from U.S. Route 93, from Wikieup, Arizona and Nothing, Arizona.
The Muggins Mountains is a mountain range in southwest Arizona east of Yuma, Arizona, northeast of the Gila Mountains, and east of the Laguna Mountains. The Castle Dome Mountains lie to the northeast across the broad Castle Dome Plain. The Muggins Mountains Wilderness occupies the southwest portion of the range.
The Maria fold and thrust belt (MFTB) is a portion of the North American Cordillera orogen in which geological structures accommodate roughly north–south to northwest-southeast vergent Mesozoic age crustal shortening. This lies in contrast to the remainder of the Cordillera, in which shortening is predominantly east–west. Structures associated with the Maria Fold and Thrust Belt are exposed in a series of mountain ranges in southeastern California and western Arizona. Many of the deep structures of the MFTB have been exposed due to east–west to northeast-southwest Cenozoic age extension and unroofing.
The Sacramento Wash is a major drainage of northwest Arizona in Mohave County. The wash is east of the Black Canyon of the Colorado and drains into the south-flowing Colorado River 45 mi south of Lake Mohave, and 90 mi south of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead. The wash outfall is in the center-south of the Havasu-Mohave Lakes Watershed. An equivalent wash drains to the west of the Colorado River and the Black Canyon, draining southeast Nevada and a small part of California, the Piute Wash of the Piute Valley. The Piute Wash outfall is upstream of the Sacramento's outfall by about 15 miles.
The Harcuvar Mountains are a narrow mountain range in western-central Arizona, United States. The range lies just east of the north-south Colorado River, and south of the east-west, west-flowing Bill Williams River, from Alamo Lake.
The Buckskin Mountains is a mountain range in La Paz County, Arizona, United States. The range lies just east of the north–south Colorado River, and borders south of the east–west, west-flowing Bill Williams River.
Butler Valley is a valley of the Maria fold and thrust belt in western Arizona, USA. It lies east of the Colorado River, and is south of the west-flowing Bill Williams River.
The Mohave Mountains are a small 18-mi (29 km) long mountain range of northwest Arizona. The range is a northwest trending range in southwest Mohave County that parallels a southeast-flowing stretch of the Colorado River, the Arizona-California border. The range also forms the southwest border of a flatland region to its east and north, namely, Dutch Flat which lies east, at the south end of Sacramento Valley. Lake Havasu City, AZ on the Colorado, lays opposite the southwest flank of the range, where the London Bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu.
The Rawhide Mountains are a mountain range of western Arizona, in the southwest of Mohave County. It is part of a block of mountain ranges on the north of an insular region called the Maria fold and thrust belt, containing mountain ranges, valleys, and plains. The Rawhide Mountains border the much smaller Artillery Mountains southeast, bordering on Alamo Lake State Park and the south-flowing Big Sandy River.
The Granite Wash Mountains are a short, arid, low elevation mountain range of western-central Arizona, in the southeast of La Paz County. The range borders a slightly larger range southeast, the Little Harquahala Mountains; both ranges form a section on the same water divide between two desert washes. The washes flow in opposite directions, one northwest to the Colorado River, the other southeast to the Gila River.
The West Silver Bell Mountains are a small 10 mile (16 km) long mountain range of south-central Arizona, United States. The range lies in the north-central arid Sonoran Desert; the Madrean Sky Islands region of southeast Arizona, around Tucson is adjacent to the southeast.
The Tonopah Desert is a small desert plains region of the Sonoran Desert, located west of Phoenix, Arizona. It is adjacent north of Interstate 10 and lies at the southwest intersection of the Hassayampa River with the Gila River. The Tonopah Desert is also just north of the Gila Bend Mountains massif which create the Gila Bend of the river.
The Animas Valley is a lengthy and narrow, north–south 85 mi (137 km) long, valley located in western Hidalgo County, New Mexico in the Bootheel Region; the extreme south of the valley lies in Sonora-Chihuahua, in the extreme northwest of the Chihuahuan Desert, the large desert region of the north-central Mexican Plateau and the Rio Grande valley and river system.
The Date Creek Mountains are a short, arid range in southwest Yavapai County, Arizona. Congress is on its southeast foothills, and Wickenburg lies 15 mi (24 km) southeast.
The Aquarius Mountains are a 45-mi (72 km) long mountain range in southeast Mohave County, Arizona. The range lies in the northwest of the Arizona transition zone, and at the southwest of the Coconino Plateau, a subsection of the Colorado Plateau.
The Arizona/New Mexico Mountains ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico.
The Hurricane Cliffs of southwest Utah and northwest Arizona are a red, limestone geographic feature, sets of cliffs along the western, eroded edge of the Kaibab Limestone; the cliffs are about 135-mi (217 km) long, with the south end terminus just north of the Grand Canyon.
The Defiance Plateau, part of the geologic Defiance Uplift, is an approximately 75-mile (121 km) long, mostly north-trending plateau of Apache County, Arizona, with its east and southeast perimeter, as parts of San Juan and McKinley Counties, New Mexico.
The Toroweap Fault of northwest Arizona and southwest Utah is part of a fault system of the west Grand Canyon region, Arizona, USA; also the west perimeter regions of the Coconino and Colorado Plateaus. The Hurricane Fault originates at the Toroweap Fault, in the region of the Colorado River, and strikes as the westerly depression of the Toroweap Fault. The Toroweap strikes northerly from the Colorado at the east of Toroweap Valley, and enters south Utah; from the Colorado River, the Hurricane Fault strikes north-northwest along the west flank of the small, regional Uinkaret Mountains, the west border of Toroweap Valley. The Hurricane Fault, and the Hurricane Cliffs strike into southwest Utah as part of the west, and southwest perimeter of the Colorado Plateau. The Hurricane Cliffs are made of Kaibab Limestone, an erosion resistant, cliff-forming rock unit.
The Peacock Mountains are a small, 26 mi (42 km) long mountain range in northwest Arizona, US. The range is a narrow sub-range, and an extension north, at the northeast of the Hualapai Mountains massif, which lies to the southwest. The range is defined by the Hualapai Valley to the northwest, and north and south-flowing washes on its east border, associated with faults and cliffs; the Cottonwood Cliffs are due east, and are connected to the Aquarius Cliffs southward at the west perimeter of the Aquarius Mountains; the cliffs are a result of the Aquarius Fault, which is an extension southward from the Grand Wash Cliffs and Grand Wash Fault which crosses the Colorado River at Lake Mead, and the west perimeter of the Grand Canyon/Colorado Plateau.
Arrastra Mountain
Poachie Range