The Goldfield Mountains of Arizona are located adjacent to the

Superstition Mountains The Superstition Mountains ( yuf-x-yav, Wi:kchsawa) is a range of mountains in Arizona located to the east of the Phoenix metropolitan area. They are anchored by Superstition Mountain, a large mountain that is a popular recreation destination for ...

, between Usery Pass and

Canyon Lake (Arizona) Canyon Lake is one of four reservoirs that were formed by the damming of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona as part of the Salt River Project. It was formed by the Mormon Flat Dam, which was completed in 1925 after two years of construc ...

. In 1893, the southern part of the Goldfield Mountains was a large mining district.

Hiking

Because there are no trails on the higher parts of the mountains, hiking is only done by advanced hikers. The trails on the lower parts of the mountains are dirt roadways that were created for miners and ranchers.

Arizona State Route 88 State Route 88 is a long state highway in the U.S. state of Arizona. It runs from U.S. Route 60 (US 60) in Apache Junction through desert terrain to SR 188 near Roosevelt Dam. Following the Salt River for much of its length, the section east o ...

runs south of the mountains, and the

Saguaro Lake (Arizona) Saguaro Lake is the fourth reservoir on the Salt River, formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam in the U.S. state of Arizona. The lake is off State Route 87, about halfway between Phoenix and the ghost town of Sunflower. The dammed end of the la ...

can be found north of them.

Vegetation and Wildlife

The vegetation zone in the Goldfield Mountains is the Arizona Upland subdivision of the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

, which is also called the saguaro-palo verde forest. Wildlife in these mountains is part of the upper Sonoran ecosystem. These mountains are part of the

Tonto National Forest The Tonto National Forest, encompassing , is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the ninth largest national forest in the United States. The forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet (427 m) in ...

. They contain palo verde,

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

, ironwood, desert willow, and catclaw trees. There are ocotillo, saltbush, creosote bush, jojoba, agave, and hackberry shrubs. There are also many different kinds of cacti present there. Saguaros are plentiful and so are the pencil cholla cacti. Many different kinds of animals and wildlife creatures have been spotted in the Goldfield Mountains. These include deer, javelin, foxes, coyotes,

roadrunners The roadrunners (genus ''Geococcyx''), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, us ...

, red-tailed hawks,

bald eagles The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

, and

desert tortoises The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii''), is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and to the Sinaloan thornscr ...

. There are smaller species in these mountains that are protected including gila monsters and smaller lizards, rattlesnakes and smaller snakes, ground squirrels, tarantulas, centipedes, and horned toads.

References

* {{Coord, 33, 31, N, 111, 31, W, type:mountain_dim:20000_region:US-AZ, display=title Mountain ranges of Arizona Mountain ranges of Maricopa County, Arizona