The Aquarius Mountains are a 45-mi (72 km) long

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 ...

in southeast

Mohave County Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 counties in the state. 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 th ...

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 range lies in the northwest of the

Arizona transition zone The Arizona transition zone is a diagonal northwest-by-southeast region across central Arizona. The region is a transition from the higher-elevation Colorado Plateau in Northeast Arizona and the Basin and Range region of lower-elevation desert ...

, and at the southwest of the

Coconino Plateau The Coconino Plateau is found south of the Grand Canyon and north-northwest of Flagstaff, in northern Arizona of the Southwestern United States. Geography The Coconino Plateau lies south of Grand Canyon Village and the South Rim of the Grand ...

, a subsection of the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. This plateau covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within w ...

. The Aquarius Mountains are on the perimeter of the transition zone, and border the south-flowing Big Sandy River and Valley on its west; adjacent further west is the

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 ...

of the

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

, a

block fault Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by relat ...

Basin and Range Basin and range topography is characterized by alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys. It is a result of crustal extension due to mantle upwelling, gravitational collapse, crustal thickening, or relaxation of confining stresses. The e ...

landform bordered westwards by the north–south

Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...

. Mohave County and northwest Arizona, is also a southeastwards extension of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

which extends down to

Wickenburg, Arizona Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa and Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai counties, Arizona, United States. The population was 7,474 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and was estimated to be 7,920 in 2022. H ...

, on the southwest perimeter of the Arizona transition zone. Joshua trees can be found here, and the route north from

Wickenburg Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa and Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai counties, Arizona, United States. The population was 7,474 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and was estimated to be 7,920 in 2022. H ...

, U.S. Route 93 in Arizona is called the Joshua Tree Highway. The region is at the northwest border of Arizona's

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America 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 and California). It ...

region of the lower elevation deserts, as they merge northwest into higher elevations of Mohave County.

Description

The Aquarius Mountains are mostly a north–south range that curves slightly south-southeast in the south. The north of the range merges into a hill and mountain peak region at the northwest of an adjacent range eastwards, the northwest–southeast Mohon Mountains. The merged area of the two ranges in the north contains Trout and Knight Creeks, both westward-flowing towards the Big Sandy River & Valley ( both due-south trending along a fault). Seven named peaks are around the two creeks, and Cedar Basin. The highpoint of the mountain range occurs here, Snow Mountain (Arizona), .Arizona Road & Recreation Atlas, pp. 32–33, 66–67. The second highest peak in the range occurs in the extreme southwest, Grey Mountain, in the Aquarius Cliffs, part of the Aquarius Fault, a southern extension from the Grand Wash Cliffs and Fault.

Access

U.S. Route 93 travels north–south through the Big Sandy River Valley on the range's west. At

Wikieup, Arizona Wikieup is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located on U.S. Route 93 in Arizona, U.S. Route 93 in Mohave County, Arizona, Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is located approximately north ...

at the range's southwest, and near Neale and Goodwin Mesas, Route 93 turns southeast to Wickenburg, about distant. North regions of the range can be accessed south of Interstate 40.

References

* Lucchitta, 2001. ''Hiking Arizona's Geology;'' Part 2, ''Arizona Transition Zone'', Graphic, w/text, Hikes 18–26. Ivo Lucchitta, c 2001, Mountaineers's Books. 272 pages, 41 Hikes. (Transition zone: Hikes 18–26, pp. 143–82.) (softcover, )

External links

Lower Simmons Peak, trails.com

{{Mountains of Arizona Mountain ranges of Mohave County, Arizona Arizona transition zone mountain ranges Mountain ranges of Arizona