The Winchester Mountains

Above, a view of the long sweep of the Winchesters looking northeastward, across the intervening Allen Flats. The picture was taken from the 3-Links Road, which runs eastward from its intersection with the Cascabel Road in the San Pedro Valley at about Milepost 15, skirts the southern edges of the Winchesters, and runs eastward to its intersection with the town of Willcox.

The image below shows a closer view of the western flank of the Winchester Mountains in March of 2005. The bajadas in the middle-distance are part of the Allen Flats, which run on gradual slopes from the piedmont into the lower drainages.

While the southernmost portions of these mountains (to the right in the photograph, and off-camera further to the right) drain into the Tres Alamos Wash and the Kelsey Canyon Wash south of the main area of Saguaro Juniper, the rest of this western flank drains northwestward into Hot Springs Canyon (a watershed which starts toward the middle of the photo and runs to the left). Hence very heavy rainfall in the mountains here creates very massive flooding in Hot Springs Canyon (and in the other two washes as well). This view is looking roughly northeast, with Muskhog Mountain toward the left.

From Saguaro Juniper lands, we rarely see the Winchesters except from high promontories on or near our northeast corner. Here below is a view taken from Hill 4232 (its designation reflects its altitude in feet as shown on Topo maps) looking directly east. This photo was taken in March 2003, when the mountains were still snow-covered at the top (they reach over 7600 feet in altitude).

See this link: The Galiuro Mountains -- for views of those formations in relation to the Winchesters -- images at the bottom of that page are taken from the Allen Flats near the Winchesters but looking further toward the northwest.

The Winchesters