The Vulture Mountains is a long, arid, low-elevation

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 ...

located in northwest

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

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 ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is in the north perimeter region of the

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 ...

. 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 ...

mountain ranges lie north and northeast, just north of

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 ...

. The Yarnell Hill, about north of Wickenburg, rising into the

Weaver Mountains The Weaver Mountains are a smaller mountain range to the southwest of the Bradshaw Mountains in central-west Yavapai County, Arizona. Yarnell, at the summit of the Yarnell Hill, Arizona State Route 89, is at the center of the range. Descripti ...

to Yarnell, marks the dramatic elevation rise from the desert. It is also a viewpoint southwest and southeast of the desert regions, including the Vulture Mountains.

Description and geography

The Vulture Mountains are about long, and east of center, about wide; the range is somewhat crescent shaped, mainly trending east–west, and narrowing westwards. The northeast is followed by the course of a southeast stretch of the

Hassayampa River The Hassayampa River (Yavapai language, Yavapai: Hasaya:mvo or ʼHasayamcho:) is an intermittent river, the headwaters of which are just south of Prescott, Arizona, and flows mostly south towards Wickenburg, Arizona, Wickenburg, entering the Gila ...

; the river turns due-south west of Morristown, on

US 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

, making the east terminus of the range about 7 mi wide, at the rivers floodplain. The Hassayampa enters the north of the Hassayampa Plain, so a small river canyon region lies at the Vulture Mountain's northeast, with the Wickenburg Mountains northeast, and the

Hieroglyphic Mountains The Hieroglyphic Mountains are a mountain range located in central Arizona. The Hieroglyphics roughly straddle the border between Maricopa and Yavapai counties and form an effective physical barrier northwest of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. D ...

east. The high point of the range is Vulture Peak, (), at the center east of the range. Another major peak anchors the west region of the range, Black Butte, at ).

Access

The major access to the north and east foothills of the Vulture Mountains is by way of

U.S. Route 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

. The route traverses from

Aguila Águila or Aguila is Spanish for "eagle". It may refer to: Places *El Aguila, Valle del Cauca, a town and municipality in Colombia *Aguila, Arizona, United States Ships *, the first ship of the Chilean Navy *, a British passenger ship sunk in 19 ...

at the northwest, Wickenburg at the northeast, and a southeast stretch at the mountains northeast, with the route paralleling the

. A paved route dissects the range on a south-southwest direction from Wickenburg, which lies on the mountain range's foothills, with the route being east of the mountain range center. Numerous unimproved routes exit from the route into the mountain areas, or they access the southern side of the mountain range-(the north of the Hassayampa Plain). Unimproved routes are restricted on the east side foothills, since it is the floodplain, watershed region of the Hassayampa River, where the riverbed has widened to up to 1.5 mi in some locales. One major unimproved route crosses the Hassayampa west from Morristown.

Historic structures of the Vulture Mine and City

In 1863, after Henry Wickenburg discovered the Vulture Mine, Vulture City, a small mining town was established in the area. The town once had a population of 5,000 citizens. After the mine closed the city was deserted and became a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

. The following are images with a brief description of the Vulture Mine and Vulture City, both located in the Vulture Mountains. Some of the structures are still present in what once was known as Vulture City located in the mountain.

References

* Arizona Road & Recreation Atlas, Benchmark Maps, 2nd Edition, c. 1998, 112 pages, pp. 45, 46, 79, 80. * Arizona DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, 5th Edition, c. 2002, 76 pages, pp. 48–49.

External links

Vulture Peak, (lat-long.com), (coordinates)
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert Mountain ranges of Maricopa County, Arizona Mountain ranges of Arizona

Description and geography

Access

Historic structures of the Vulture Mine and City

See also

References

External links