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Sulphur Springs Valley
The Sulphur Springs Valley is a valley in the eastern half of Cochise County, Arizona. The valley covers an approximated vertical rectangle west of the Chiricahua Mountains–Dos Cabezas Mountains complex. The Sulphur Springs Valley is the large flatland to the west. Geography The valley gets its name from two sulfur springs located there. Drainage is from north to south, with a moderately sized endorheic basin, named the Willcox Playa, occupying the northern area. The southern portion of the valley drains into Mexico through Douglas, Arizona through Agua Prieta, Sonora, and into the Yaqui River. During plentiful rain the mountain foothills contain plentiful grasslands. The region is otherwise an arid part of the northeastern Sonoran Desert, influenced by the Chihuahuan Desert just southeast in New Mexico and northwest Chihuahua. The highest mountain areas of this southeast Arizona section contains Madrean Sky Islands of mountain sky islands. Sulphur Springs Valley is one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cochise County, Arizona
Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city is Sierra Vista. Cochise County includes the Sierra Vista-Douglas, Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county borders southwestern New Mexico and the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. History In 1528 Spanish Explorers: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevanico, and Fray Marcos de Niza survived a shipwreck off the Texas coast. Captured by Native Americans, they spent eight years finding their way back to Mexico City, via the San Pedro Valley. Their journals, maps, and stories led to the Cibola, seven cities of gold myth. The Expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1539 using it as his route north through what they called the Guachuca Mountains of Pima ( Tohono O'odham) lands and later part of the mission routes north, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chihuahuan Desert
The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower Pecos Valley in New Mexico, and a portion of southeastern Arizona, as well as the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau. It is bordered on the west by the Sonoran Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, along with northwestern lowlands of the Sierra Madre Oriental range. Its largest, continual expanse is located in Mexico, covering a large portion of the state of Chihuahua, along with portions of Coahuila, north-eastern Durango, the extreme northern part of Zacatecas, and small western portions of Nuevo León. With an area of about , it is the largest desert in North America. The desert is fairly young, existing for only 8000 years. Geography There are several larger mountain ranges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chiricahua National Monument
Chiricahua National Monument is a unit of the National Park System located in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The monument was established on April 18, 1924, to protect its extensive hoodoos and balancing rocks. The Faraway Ranch, which was owned at one time by Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson, is also preserved within the monument. Just over 85% of the monument is protected as the Chiricahua National Monument Wilderness. Visitor center A visitor center is located two miles from the entrance to Chiricahua National Monument. The visitor center has exhibits relating to the geology, natural history, and cultural history of the area. A park ranger is available to provide visitors with trail guides and information. The main road, Bonita Canyon Drive, ventures east through the park, ending at Massai Point. Approximately of trails lead hikers through various ecosystems of meadows, forests, and rock formations. The visitor center has a free shuttle that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandhill Crane
The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. Sandhill Cranes are known to hangout at the edges of bodies of water especially in the Central Florida region. This is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (''A. c. canadensis''), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually. Taxonomy In 1750, English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sandhill crane in the third volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The Brown and Ash-colour'd Crane". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay area of Canada by James Isham. When in 1758 the Swedish natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory
The Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) is a nonprofit membership-supported scientific and educational organization founded in 1996 in Bisbee, Arizona, USA. The mission of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory is to promote the conservation of the birds of southeastern Arizona, their habitats, and the diversity of species that share those habitats through research, monitoring, and public education. The observatory's founders are Tom Wood and Sheri Williamson, former managers of The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve. Monitoring bird diversity Southeastern Arizona is at a biogeographic crossroads, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico and the Chihuahuan Desert blends into the Sonoran Desert. Isolated mountain ranges known as "sky islands" are home to a variety of animal and plant species found nowhere else in the United States. The San Pedro River flows north from the mountains of northern Sonora, Mexico providing a highway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arizona State Route 186
State Route 186 (SR 186) is a highway in Cochise County, Arizona that runs from its junction with Interstate 10 in Willcox to its junction with SR 181 west of the Chiricahua National Monument. It is a northwest–southeast diagonal route. Route description The western terminus of SR 186 is located at Virginia Avenue, west of an interchange with I-10, in Willcox. It heads east beyond I-10 along Rex Allen Drive to an intersection with the I-10 Business Loop. SR 186 heads southwest from this intersection concurrent with I-10 Bus. until it reaches Maley Street. At this intersection, SR 186 follows Maley St. to the southeast as I-10 Bus. continues to the southwest. SR 186 heads southeast from Willcox until it curves towards the east at an intersection with Kansas Settlement Road. The highway continues on this heading until it curves towards the south after passing through Dos Cabezas. The highway curves back towards the southeast until it curves back towards the south near its ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arizona State Route 181
State Route 181 (SR 181) is a highway in Cochise County, Arizona that runs from its junction with US 191 east of Pearce to the Chiricahua National Monument. It is an east–west route for the half east of Pearce, but becomes a primarily north–south route on the half approaching the monument. SR 181 serves primarily as an access to the monument, although it also services the settlement of Sunizona east of Pearce. Route description The western terminus is located at US 191 east of Pearce. The highway heads east from this intersection through Sunizona where the highway briefly heads towards the south before curving back towards the east. It continues towards the east until it turns towards the north at an intersection with Turkey Creek and Kuykendall Cutoff roads. The highway continues heading towards the north with the occasional curve towards the northeast before continuing north. When SR 181 reaches an intersection with SR 186, SR 181 turns towards the east. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate 10 In Arizona
In the U.S. state of Arizona, Interstate 10 (I‑10), the major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States Sun Belt, runs east from California, enters Arizona near the town of Ehrenberg and continues through Phoenix and Tucson and exits at the border with New Mexico near San Simon. The highway also runs through the cities of Casa Grande, Eloy, and Marana. Segments of the highway are referred to as either the Papago Freeway, Inner Loop, or Maricopa Freeway within the Phoenix area and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway outside metro Phoenix. Route description I-10 through Arizona is designated a "Purple Heart Trail", after those wounded in combat who receive the Purple Heart. The western terminus is located at the California border at the Colorado River in La Paz County where I-10 continues westward into California towards Los Angeles. Here, the same physical road is signed as both I‑10 and U.S. Route 95 (US 95). Western segment The highway runs eas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swisshelm Mountains
The Swisshelm Mountains are a small mountain range adjacent to the southwest corner of the Chiricahua Mountains of eastern Cochise County, Arizona. They are separated from the Pedrogosa Mountains to the southeast, the Chiricahuas to the northeast, and by Leslie Creek, bordering the south and east; the area is now notable for the Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge. The mountain range is named for John Swisshelm, a miner, a local settler of the late 1800s. Range The range is a north-south range, with three notable peaks. In the south, Swisshelm Mountain is the highest at . In the north, an unnamed peak is 5225 ft, and is adjacent to ''Whitewater Draw'' of the lower stretch of Rucker Creek. A second unnamed peak is in the northeast, at 5847 ft and also adjacent to Rucker Creek. Leslie Creek forms the eastern and southern border of the Swisshelm Mountains. The Chiricahuas are directly adjacent eastwards; the Pedregosa Mountains are southeast and are drained by a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountain Range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arisen from the same cause, usually an orogeny. Mountain ranges are formed by a variety of geological processes, but most of the significant ones on Earth are the result of plate tectonics. Mountain ranges are also found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types. Major ranges Most geolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sky Islands
Sky islands are 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 high-elevation forests. The isolation has significant implications for these natural habitats. The American Southwest region began warming up between and 10,000 years BP and atmospheric temperatures increased substantially, resulting in the formation of vast deserts that isolated the sky islands. Endemism, altitudinal migration, and relict populations are some of the natural phenomena to be found on sky islands. The complex dynamics of species richness on sky islands draws attention from the discipline of biogeography, and likewise the biodiversity is of concern to conservation biology. One of the key elements of a sky island is separation by physical distance from the other mountain ranges, resulting in a habitat island, such as a forest surrounded by desert. Some sky isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madrean Sky Islands
The Madrean Sky Islands are enclaves of Madrean pine–oak woodlands, found at higher elevations in a complex of small mountain ranges in southern and southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico. The sky islands are surrounded at lower elevations by the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. The northern west–east perimeter of the sky island region merges into the higher elevation eastern Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains of eastern Arizona (southern Anasazi region). The sky islands are the northernmost of the Madrean pine–oak woodlands, and are classified as part of the Sierra Madre Occidental pine–oak forests ecoregion, of the tropical and subtropical coniferous forests biome. The sky islands were isolated from one another and from the pine–oak woodlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental to the south by the warming and drying of the climate since the ice ages. There are approximately 27 Madrean sky islands in the United States, and 15 in northern M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
