Last updated: June 4, 2021
Place
Ajo Mountain Drive Stop 7
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Mile 6.0 [km 9.7] along Ajo Mountain Drive
Amenities
2 listed
Picnic Table, Scenic View/Photo Spot
Stop 7
Hermana Means Sister
Scenic views are spectacular from the little rocky ridge to the west. Just below the ridge, the upper portion of Diablo Wash emerges from a steep canyon. Looking west from the ridge, the large, dark double summit of Twin Peaks rises above the Kris Eggle Visitor Center. The more distant craggy Cubabi Mountains to the south lie just beyond the town of Sonoyta, Mexico. Behind the Cubabis lies Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar or El Pinacate to the locals. This Mexican national park is the sister park to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, meaning the two parks work together on monitoring projects including wildlife migration, climate and weather trends, and human impacts on the park resources.
As you look across the desert, you are viewing a complex network of migratory routes for many animals that live in the Sonoran Desert. Washes just like Diablo Canyon serve as primary routes of travel for hummingbirds, coyotes and javelina. Humans have traditionally used these pathways as well. Other species, like the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn, prefer the open creosote flats. Biologists from both Organ Pipe and El Pinacate are studying wildlife migration, determining human impacts on wildlife and how the two park sites can better manage wildlife populations. State, federal and Mexican biologists have created the Sonoran Pronghorn Recovery Team, which conducts aerial surveys of pronghorn, provides support to local parklands and operates a captive breeding program.
This relationship with our sister park allows us to share information across a political boundary, collaborate efforts to protect animals like the pronghorn and to cooperate with each other in preserving and conserving two vividly different wild lands.