Aravaipa Creek is a drainage between three

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 aris ...

s in southwest Graham County,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

– the

Galiuro Mountains The Galiuro Mountains are a large sky island mountain range of southeast Arizona, United States. It is a northerly mountain range in the Madrean Sky Islands region of southeast Arizona, northern Sonora in northwestern Mexico, and the extreme ...

, the

Santa Teresa Mountains The Santa Teresa Mountains are a mountain range located within the Coronado National Forest and partly within the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in western Graham County, Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern ...

and the Pinaleno Mountains. These mountains are part of the high altitude

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 su ...

located in southern Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and northern Sonora and Chihuahua states in Mexico. Aravaipa Creek originates on the southeast flank of the Galiuro Mountains at Durkee Canyon and Blue Peak at .Arizona Road and Recreation Atlas, pp. 82–83. It then flows northwest through the narrow, fault-blocked Aravaipa Valley with the Pinaleno Mountains bordering the valley on the east and the Santa Teresa Mountains bordering on the northeast. On the west side of the valley, the creek follows the northeast and north perimeter of the Galiuro Mountains

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

flowing northwest, west, and then southwest through and around the range's north end to meet the San Pedro River a few miles south of Dudleyville. The town of Klondyke is located in the heart of the Aravaipa Valley about 35 miles west from Eden which is located on

U.S. Route 70 U.S. Route 70 or U.S. Highway 70 (US 70) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from eastern North Carolina to east-central Arizona. It is a major east–west highway of the Southeastern, Southern and Southwestern United States ...

. There is also access to Klondyke via

Arizona State Route 266 State Route 266 (SR 266) is a highway in Graham County, Arizona that runs from its junction with US 191 south of Safford to Fort Grant. It is an east–west route. Route description The eastern terminus of SR 266 is located on US 191 so ...

to Bonita (passing near Fort Grant) and thence on a gravel road north through the valley. Bonita may also be accessed by gravel road north from Willcox. West of Klondyke in the Galiuro Mountains is the location of the well known Power's Cabin shootout. The former populated area of Aravaipa is located at the end of the Klondyke Road on the slopes of the Santa Teresa Mountains, north of Klondyke. Aravaipa Canyon at the north end of the Galiuro Mountains contains the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness. The creek goes northwest then southwest through the canyon and downstream about to meet the San Pedro River and

Arizona State Route 77 State Route 77 (SR 77) is a long state highway in Arizona that traverses much of the state's length, stretching from its southern terminus at a junction with I-10 in Tucson to its northern terminus with BIA Route 6 at the Navajo Nation boundar ...

between Dudleyville and

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

. Access to the eastern end of the wilderness is located north of Klondyke on the Klondyke Road.

References

External links

Map of Aravaipa Creek from Northern Arizona University.

Aravaipa Creek confluence with the San Pedro River

Geohydrology Assessment of Aravaipa Canyon from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

YouTube video of driving the Klondyke Road from Pima, Arizona (from the east) to the east end of Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness.

Photos of driving to Klondyke from Wilcox (from the south), then to the east end of the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, and then hiking the eastern part of the canyon.
{{authority control Rivers of Arizona Rivers of Graham County, Arizona Pinaleño Mountains

See also

References

External links