Sky Islands
Sky Islands Carousel
Our carousel is a rotating set of images, rotation stops on keyboard focus on carousel tab controls or hovering the mouse pointer over images. Use the tabs or the previous and next buttons to change the displayed slide.
Canelo Hills
Chiricahua Mountains
Dragoon Mountains
Galiuro Mountains
Huachuca Mountains
Patagonia Mountains
Peloncillo Mountains
Pinaleno Mountains
Rincon Mountains
Santa Catalina Mountains
Santa Rita Mountains
Santa Teresa Mountains
Tumacacori Highlands
Whetstone Mountains
Winchester Mountains
Join Us to Discover
“Sky Islands” are isolated mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico. Some of the mountains rise more than 6,000 feet above the surrounding desert floor making the lowlands and high peaks drastically different. Plants and animals living in the mountains could never survive in the surrounding deserts. Thus by analogy, the mountains are “islands” surrounded by deserts that are “seas”.
What are Sky Islands?
Sky Islands are isolated mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico, connecting two very different mountainous regions. Sky Islands are places where you can see incredible plant diversity in only a few miles.
Climate Changes and Evolving Plants
About 20,000 years ago, North America was in an Ice Age. In the Southwest, there was less desert and more woodlands than today. As the climate grew hotter and drier, plants and animals were trapped and isolated on Sky Island mountainsides, a recipe for plant evolution.
Sky Island Plant Communities
When you climb a Sky Island mountain in the summertime, you start in the desert where the daytime temperature may reach 120° Farenheit and you end up on a mountaintop where the temperature is perhaps 75° Farenheit and you feel comfortable wearing a jacket.
Sky Islands of the Coronado National Forest
The Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona manages major parts of the Sky Islands north of Mexico. Habitats vary from deserts to subalpine forests. The high elevation peaks are refuges for plants, animals, and even humans when temperatures soar in the deserts.
Plants of the Sky Islands
There are many diverse and unusual plants growing in the Sky Island plant communities. Enjoy a small sampling of these species.