The San Luis Mountains are a small, lower elevation mountain range of central-southern

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the population ...

Arizona adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border, northeast of

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 ...

–Sasabe, Sonora. The range is northwest-southeast trending, about in length. The range borders 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 ...

to the west; both are in the southeast of the

Altar Valley The Altar Valley is a 45-mile (72 km) long north–south valley, trending slightly northeast from Sasabe, Arizona on the Mexico border to the Avra Valley west of the Tucson Mountains. It is delimited by Arizona State Route 86, from east-to-w ...

. The southeast of the range abuts ''Cobre Ridge'', with various peaks, and Cobre Ridge borders the western edge of the Pajarito Wilderness, at the west end of the Pajarito Mountains. The community of

Arivaca Arivaca ( O'odham: Ali Wa:pk) is an unincorporated community in Pima County, Arizona, United States.Arivac ...

lies in the valley northeast of the San Luis Mountains at the southeast end of the

Las Guijas Mountains The Las Guijas Mountains are a small northwest–southeast trending mountain range in southern Pima County, Arizona. The range is approximately long by .''Sells, Arizona-Sonora,'' 30x60 topographic quadrangle, USGS, 1994 Surrounding ranges inclu ...

; Arivaca Lake lies about 5 mi upstream on Arivaca Wash. The International Border lies less than one mile south of the southern margin of the range in Fresnal Wash. Cumero Mountain Peak at is north of the border.''Sells, Arizona–Sonora,'' 30x60 topographic quadrangle, USGS, 1994''Atascosa Mountains, Arizona–Sonora,'' 30x60 minute topographic map, USGS, 1994 Two mountain ranges, the San Luis in the southwest, and the

Cerro Colorado Mountains The Cerro Colorado Mountains are a low mountain range in southern Pima County, Arizona, USA. The highest point of the range is Colorado Peak (). The range consists of a NNW–SSE trending ridge with several shorter ridges extending off the main ...

northwest lie west of the four-mountain sequence of the ''Tumacacori Highlands'' (of adjacent western Santa Cruz County) of the Tumacacori, Atascosa, Pajarito, and the

Sierra La Esmeralda The Sierra La Esmeralda range, (Emerald Mountains) are a mountain range in northern Sonora, Mexico at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera. The region contains sky island mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands, ...

mountain ranges. The Highlands are now part of a

conservancy Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

study of wild cat 'travel corridor' usage between mountains, the study called ''Cuatros Gatos'' (Four Cats), for the

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

, and

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

.Arizona Highways Magazine, ''Emerald Isle'', pp. 40–43.

References

Arizona Highways ''Arizona Highways'' is a magazine that contains travelogues and artistic photographs related to the U.S. state of Arizona. It is published monthly in Phoenix by a unit of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Background The mag ...

. ''Emerald Isle'', Terry Greene Sterling, photography, Jack Dykinga, February, 2010, pp. 40–43.

External links

San Luis Mountains at Mountainzone
;Ecology
Euphorbia, (spurge) plants, Universidad de Sonora (DICTUS)
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Pima County, Arizona Mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert Mountain ranges of Arizona