The Rawhide Mountains are a mountain range of western

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 southwest of

Mohave County Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United St ...

. 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 The Artillery Mountains are a mountain range in Mohave County in western Arizona. High point of the range is Artillery Peak, above sea level. Artillery Peak is at coordinates N 34.36946 W 113.58160 . Mineral resources of the Artillery Mountains ...

southeast, bordering on Alamo Lake State Park and the south-flowing Big Sandy River. The border to the southwest are the Bill Williams Mountains, and the

Poachie Range 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 bord ...

with the large

Arrastra Mountain Wilderness Arrastra Mountain Wilderness is a protected wilderness area centered around the Poachie Range, a northwest–southeast trending mountain range that rises to almost . Established in 1990 under the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act, the area is managed ...

is northeast and east. The high point of the range is Aubrey Peak at . Two other peaks lie at the southeast, Miller Peak at and Fools Peak at . The southern perimeter of the Rawhide Mountains is the west-flowing

Bill Williams River The Bill Williams River is a river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River (Arizona), Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County, Arizona, Mohave County to the north and La Paz C ...

. The river is part of the northern border of the Maria fold and thrust belt with the block of mountains north forming the border, and is also part of the southeast

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

, another de facto border. South of the river is the northwestern

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 ...

. The major mountain block at the intersection of this region west in California is the

Whipple Mountains The Whipple Mountains ( Mojave: Avii Kur'utat; Chemehuevi: Wiyaatuʷa̱) are located in eastern San Bernardino County, California. They are directly west of the Colorado River, Parker Dam, and Lake Havasu; south of Needles, California; north of ...

of southeast

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 ...

, in the northeast

Colorado Desert California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna. Geography and geology The Colorado De ...

(the northwestern Sonoran Desert). The Whipple Mountains cause the south-flowing

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 ...

to traverse southeast, then back southwest around the Whipple Mountains

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

. The Colorado then turns back to the south. (It makes another excursion south of the

Trigo Mountains The Trigo Mountains are a north-south trending mountain range in La Paz County, Arizona, bordering the Colorado River on the east in the Lower Colorado River Valley. The range lies north of the Colorado River as it turns east, north of Martin ...

massif.)

Rawhide Mountains and Aubrey Peak Wildernesses

Approximately half of the Rawhide Mountains contain wilderness areas.

Aubrey Peak Wilderness

The northwest of the range consists of the

Aubrey Peak Wilderness The Aubrey Peak Wilderness is a wilderness administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The wilderness is located in northwest Arizona in the southwest of Mohave County, a region of the southeastern Mojave Desert's extension into northw ...

, of . It is accessed by unimproved dirt roads, which are on the southwest and southeast perimeter. Two geologic hikes are profiled in the region. The route starts at Wikieup and Hike 29 is in the southern

Hualapai Mountains The Hualapai Mountains are a mountain range located in Mohave County, east of Kingman, Arizona. Rising up to 8,417 feet at its highest peak, the higher elevations of the Hualapai Mountains support Madrean Sky Island habitats, and are host to ...

at a mountain saddle. The route is the access to

Centennial Wash Centennial Wash is an ephemeral dry wash that forms the final watershed of the Gila River in central Arizona – before the river turns south. From the Centennial Wash confluence, the Gila turns south, then southwest to exit Arizona on the Calif ...

, Hike 30,Luchhitta, 2001. Centennial Wash, Hike 30. where the wash is part of the southeast border of the Aubrey Peak Wilderness.

Rawhide Mountains Wilderness

The Rawhide Mountains Wilderness is a large wilderness that is on both banks of the Bill Williams River, and the confluence of the Big Sandy River. It is in the northeast of the

Buckskin Mountains 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. Description The range is ...

, the southeast of the Rawhide's and forms the western border of Alamo Lake, at Alamo Lake State Park.

References

*Lucchitta, 2001. ''Hiking Arizona's Geology,'' Ivo Lucchitta, c 2001, Mountaineers's Books. (softcover, )

External links

Rawhide Mountains Wilderness BLMAubrey Peak Wilderness BLMFools Peak, Rawhide Mountains (coordinates)Fools Peak & other regional landforms
Aubrey Peak
McCracken Peak, AZ section, Red Top Mine (coordinates)
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Mohave County, Arizona Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert Protected areas of Mohave County, Arizona Mountain ranges of Arizona