Vulture Mountains
The Vulture Mountains is a long, arid, low-elevation mountain range located in northwest Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is in the north perimeter region of the Sonoran Desert. The Arizona transition zone mountain ranges lie north and northeast, just north of Wickenburg, Arizona. The Yarnell Hill, about north of Wickenburg, rising into the Weaver Mountains 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 river turns due-south west of Morristown, on US 60, 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 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. The route traverses from Aguila at the northwest, Wickenburg at the northeast, and a southeast stretch at the mountains northeast, with the route paralleling the Hassayampa River.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-.
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.