The Sierra La Esmeralda range, (Emerald Mountains) are a mountain range in northern Sonora

Sonora

Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental

Sierra Madre Occidental

The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...

 cordillera. The region contains sky island

Sky island

Sky islands are mountains that are isolated by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment, a situation which, in combination with the altitudinal zonation of ecosystems, has significant implications for natural habitats. Endemism, vertical migration, and relict populations are...

 mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands

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...

, some separated from the Sierra Madre Occidental proper, and occurring in the northeastern Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...

, and extreme west-northwestern Chihuahuan Desert

Chihuahuan Desert

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert, and an ecoregion designation, that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra...

. Many of the ranges occur in southeast Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.

Sierra La Esmeralda anchors the southern portion of the Tumacacori Highlands. The range is part of a Nature Conservancy study of wild cats, called Cuatros Gatos, (Four Cats).

Nogales, Arizona

Nogales, Arizona

Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 21,017 at the 2010 census. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County....

 and Nogales, Sonora

Nogales, Sonora

Heroica Nogales , more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and its surrounding municipality on the northern border of the Mexican State of Sonora. The municipality covers an area of 1,675 km², and borders to the north the city of Nogales, Arizona, United States, across the U.S.-Mexico border...

 lie at the northeast of the range.

Tumacacori Highlands

The Tumacacori Highlands is a series of connected mountain ranges in western Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz County, Arizona

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*73.5% White*0.4% Black*0.7% Native American*0.5% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*2.0% Two or more races*22.9% Other races*82.8% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

 County, Arizona. The Highlands are northwest of Nogales

Nogales, Arizona

Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 21,017 at the 2010 census. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County....

 and are bordered on the east by the Santa Cruz River Valley, that is traversed north-south by I-19

Interstate 19

Interstate 19 is an intrastate Interstate Highway located entirely within the state of Arizona. I-19 runs from Nogales, roughly 1,500 feet from the Mexican border, to Tucson, at Interstate 10...

. Across the valley eastwards are the tall Santa Rita Mountains

Santa Rita Mountains

The Santa Rita Mountains, located about 65 km southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastwards into the Patagonia Mountains, trending northwest by southeast...

 in the northeast, and the smaller San Cayetano Mountains, east and adjacent to Nogales's northeast. The sequence of the north-to-south Tumacacori Highlands is as follows:

North-to-south:

1. –Tumacacori Mountains
2. –Peck Canyon–(Peck Canyon Road)
3. –Atascosa Mountains
   Atascosa Mountains
   The Atascosa Mountains are a small mountain range of western Santa Cruz County, Arizona. It is sandwiched between the larger Tumacacori Mountains to the north, and a small east-west border range to the south, the Pajarito Mountains; the Pajaritos are on the U.S.-Mexico border and abut the Sierra La...
   
   -(6 mi x 9 mi)
4. –Ruby Road-(to Ruby, Arizona
   Ruby, Arizona
   Ruby is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. It was founded as a mining town in Bear Valley, originally named Montana Camp, so named because the miners were mining at the foot of Montana Peak.-History:...
   
   ); Pena Blanca Lake
   Peña Blanca Lake
   Peña Blanca Lake is a reservoir in Arizona, United States, located northwest of Nogales. The facilities are maintained by the Coronado National Forest division of the USDA Forest Service....
   
   
5. –Pajarito Mountains
   Pajarito Mountains
   The Pajarito Mountains are a small mountain range of western Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The range is adjacent the Atascosa Mountains at its north, with both ranges in the center of a north-south sequence of ranges called the Tumacacori Highlands...
   
   
6. –Mexico-Arizona border
7. –Sierra La Esmeralda-(the Emerald Mountains)

A Santa Cruz county-border "bootheel" extends southwest; the bootheel contains Cobre Ridge, and it is connected northwest to a small range, the San Luis Mountains

San Luis Mountains

The San Luis Mountains are a small, lower elevation mountain range of central-southern Pima County Arizona adjacent the U.S.-Mexico border, northeast of Sasabe, Arizona–Sasabe, Sonora....

 which are in the southeast of the Altar Valley

Altar Valley

The Altar Valley is a 45-mile long north-south valley, trending slightly northeast from Sasabe, Arizona on the Mexico border to the Avra Valley, Arizona west of the Tucson Mountains...

, and borders the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge provides of habitat for threatened and endangered plants and animals. The refuge was established in 1985.-Natural history:...

.

Historical mission communities, at Tumacacori National Historical Park

Tumacácori National Historical Park

Tumacácori National Historical Park is located in the upper Santa Cruz River Valley of southern Arizona. The park protects the ruins of three Spanish mission communities, two of which are National Historic Landmark sites, and it also contains the Tumacácori Museum, a historic landmark building...

, in Tumacacori, Arizona lie at the southeast foothills of the Tumacacori Mountains.

External links

Mountain range overview

• Tumacacori Mountains, Sierra la Esmeralda, etc area summary-(from the Atascosa Lookout)

Ecology

• Euphorbia, (spurge) plants, Universidad de Sonora (DICTUS)