This is a landscape of steep mountains and high stony plateaus with rocky outcrops from the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona south to the Mogollon Plateau and eastwards across into southwestern New Mexico. Elevations range from 1370m to 3,000 m with some peaks higher than that. Specific areas include the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico.
Wildlife found here include the miniature Northern Saw-whet Owl and many birds and reptiles that are common in Mexico further south, such as the secretive Montezuma Quail. The caves of the Guadalupe Mountains are a specific habitat for beetles, centipedes and other invertebrates.
Trees of the area include some of the spruce, fir and quaking aspen(Populus tremuloides) trees typical of the Rocky Mountains further north along with typically Mexican trees such as Chihuahua Pine (Pinus leiophylla), Apache pine (Pinus engelmannii) and the Arizona Pine of the Gila Wilderness and elsewhere. The lower elevations have a mixed pinyon pine-juniper-oak woodland. Finally the rivers and their banks are important habitats for specific wildlife and fish.
