The highest peak in the range is Pajarito Peak at due south of
Peña Blanca Lake; the peak is at the headwaters of Calabasas and Pesquiera Canyons. In the west of the range at the
Pajarita Wilderness, a
water divide makes some drainages flow south into northern
Sonora. The other drainages flow northeast to the Santa Cruz River, or northwest to the north-flowing
Altar Valley. Cobre Ridge at the northwest merges into the southwest San Luis Mountains, and the peaks of Cobre Ridge range from Black Peak, in the northwest, Cobre Mountain, then Bartlett Mountain, and Flat Top Mountain, at the west of the Pajarita Wilderness.
Nogales, Arizona and
Nogales, Sonora lie at the eastern foothills of the range in the upper region of the north–south
Santa Cruz River Valley, and in the
I-19 corridor. Peña Blanca Lake is a mountainous getaway site, about 8 mi on Ruby Road from I-19. Ruby Road continues about 25 miles, much on unimproved surfaces, through the mountains to the area of the
ghost town site of
Ruby, Arizona, just northwest of the Pajarita Wilderness, and east of Cobre Ridge, and then loops back eastward to I-19 at Amado. Two common trails of the mountain area are the Atascosa Lookout, and the Sycamore Canyon Trail (for the
Arizona sycamore,
Platanus wrightii). As part of southeast Arizona, southwest
New Mexico, Sonora and northwest
Chihuahua's
Madrean Sky Islands, mountainous
sky island region,
birdwatching finds these mountain sites as prime locales for bird species ranging north out of the
Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera. (One sought after example is the
elegant trogon species.) The highest peak, Pajarito Peak, is located at . ==The Tumacacori Highlands==