Altar Valley
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The Altar Valley is a 45-mile (72 km) long north–south valley, trending slightly northeast from
Sasabe, Arizona __NOTOC__ Sasabe ( ood, Ṣaṣawk) is a small Unincorporated area, hamlet in the Altar Valley of southern Pima County, Arizona, Pima County, Arizona, United States, immediately north of the international border with Mexico. It hosts a minor M ...
on the Mexico border to the
Avra Valley The Avra Valley is a 50-mile (80 km) long northwest–southeast valley, bordering the west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains are at the valley's center-east, with suburbs ranging east of the Tucson Mountains and trending northwest to ...
west of the
Tucson Mountains The Tucson Mountains (O'odham: Cuk Doʼag) are a minor mountain range west of Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Mountains, including Wasson Peak, are one of four notable mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson Basin. The Santa Catalina Mountains lie ...
. It is delimited by
Arizona State Route 86 State Route 86 (or SR 86) is a state highway in southern Arizona that stretches from its junction with State Route 85 in Why east to its junction at 16th Avenue east of Interstate 19 in Tucson. It formerly went east to the New Mexico border nea ...
, 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 valley is traversed from north to south by Arizona Route 286. The major Baboquivari
sky island Sky islands are topographic isolation, isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated montane ecosystems, hi ...
range borders the valley on the west; the east is bordered by a series of mountain ranges, that have
Nogales, Arizona Nogales (English: or , ; ) is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The population was 20,837 at the 2010 census and estimated 20,103 in 2019. Nogales forms part of the larger Tucson–Nogales combined statistical area, with a total population ...
nestled in between at the
United States-Mexico border United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
. Two
wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...
s lie to the west of the valley, the Coyote Mountains Wilderness east of
Kitt Peak Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...
, and the
Baboquivari Peak Wilderness The Baboquivari Peak Wilderness or La Bestia is a wilderness area in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is located in the Baboquivari Mountains southwest of Tucson, Arizona. It is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The United States Con ...
. The center of the valley is near Baldy Peak in the southwest Sierrita Mountains. Baldy Peak's height is .Arizona Road & Recreation Atlas, pp. 86–87.


Madrean Sky Islands

The Madrean Sky Island region of southeast
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, extreme southwest
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
, northern
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
and extreme northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, is the region at the northern limits of the western spine mountain of
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, the
Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...
-(Mother Mountains, West). The ranges were broken up by
Basin and Range Basin and range topography is characterized by alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys. It is a result of crustal extension due to mantle upwelling, gravitational collapse, crustal thickening, or relaxation of confining stresses. The e ...
faulting, and leaving wide areas of bajadas or
graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...
-type valleys, sometimes with obvious horst-type mountain ranges; even extreme
volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
cones can form on these horst boundaries, like the seven minor volcanoes at the northern end of the
Mohawk Mountains The Mohawk Mountains ( mrc, Vii Kachkwiny, ood, Kusvo To:b) is a mountain range in the northwest Sonoran Desert of southwest Arizona. It abuts the western Gila River valley to the north (the Lower Gila River Valley), and is located in southern ...


Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

The
Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (Buenos Aires NWR) provides of habitat for threatened and endangered plants and animals. This refuge, in Pima County, Arizona, was established in 1985. Natural history The semidesert grassland supports the r ...
borders the southeast Altar Valley and covers half the valley's length. Sasabe, the U.S.-Mexico border town is surrounded by the refuge, including to the west. The lower elevation Cerro Colorado range borders the refuge to the northeast, the similar
San Luis Mountains 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 range is northwest-southeast trending, about in len ...
to the southeast.


Table of mountain ranges

The mountains to the west and east associated with the ''Altar Valley''. On maps of
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, in the Altar Valley region, the
United States-Mexico border United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
changes direction to the northwest to end at the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
at
Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...
. This change in border direction mostly follows a
water divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...
change, separating
drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
s from each country; there are minor regional exceptions along the border to Yuma and the
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
border. Southern Arizona's desert waters flow north-northwest mostly ultimately ending at the
Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...
which starts in extreme southwestern
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
and ends at Yuma, bordering California. Mexico's border drainage is into the
Gran Desierto de Altar The Gran Desierto de Altar is one of the major sub-ecoregions of the Sonoran Desert, located in the Sonora, State of Sonora, in northwest Mexico. It includes the only active Erg (landform), erg dune region in North America. The desert extends acro ...
, with two rivers of northern
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
draining to the southwest into the northern
Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...
. These two areas of southwest Arizona and northwest Sorona are most inhospitable and dangerous in summer months. (The Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range uses the Arizona region because of its remoteness and yeartime usage abilities by flight.)


References


External links

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
Sangres.com, Refuge overview, with Altar Valley map
---- Baldy Peak

{{Authority control Valleys of Arizona Landforms of Pima County, Arizona Sonoran Desert