Sierra Ancha, Arizona
Rising from low Sonoran Desert near Roosevelt Lake to pine-covered high country,
the 7,694-foot-tall Sierra Ancha remains one of Arizona’s less-visited sky islands. I
discovered the rugged range in the 1990s while hunting for 700-year-old Native American
cliff dwellings to write about for my book Ruins Seldom Seen, but these days I visit the
beautifully wild mountains just to hike around and do photography. A couple of photos
taken from McFadden Peak, the highest point in the Sierra Ancha, show Four
Peaks, which is about 25 miles to the south in the Mazatzal Mts.