Sky island
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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 hig
View of the Santa Rita Mountains across the Tucson valley from the Santa Catalina Mountains. The Santa Ritas are among the most prominent of the "sky islands" in southern Arizona.
The 2,700 m (9,000 ft) Chiricahua Mountains above the desert
The 2,400 m (8,000 ft) Portal Peak in the Chiricahua Mountains surrounded by clouds
View from the Sandia Mountains at 10,378 feet (3,163 m) showing the transition to the desert at 6,000 feet (1,800 m) below
Chiricahua Mountains
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The Chiricahuas is a mountain range in southeastern Arizona and part of the Basin and Range province of the western and southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The range lies primarily wit
Sky island
…was published in 1942. The sky island concept was later applied in 1943 when Natt N. Dodge, in an article in Arizona Highways magazine, referred to the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona as a "mountain island in a desert sea". In about the same era, the term was used to refer to high alpine, unglaciated, ancient…
Wulfenite specimen from the old Hilltop Mine, Rustler Park
A male eared quetzal in the Chiricahua Mountains.
Chiricahua National Monument