The Goldfield Mountains of Arizona are located adjacent to the
Superstition Mountains, 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 runs south of the mountains, and the
Saguaro Lake (Arizona) 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, 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. They contain palo verde,
mesquite, 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
The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains a ...
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.
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References
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{{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