Physical Description
The Cascabel Hermitage Association
is located in southeastern Arizona, on the eastern perimeter of the Sonoran
Desert. It is in a remote area, about 30 miles east of Tucson (75 road miles)
and 20 miles from paved roads in any direction. Situated between the Galiuro
and Winchester mountains to the east, and the Catalina and Rincon mountains
to the west, CHA land occupies 440 acres in the uplands of a major watershed
(Hot Springs) of the central San Pedro River.
Although the land is in the Sonoran
Desert, it is also proximate to the Chihuahuan desert grasslands, as well as
the basin and range "sky islands" of SE Arizona and SW New Mexico
that connect the semi-tropical mountains of the Sierra Madres with the temperate
zones of the Rocky Mountains. As a result, there is a great diversity of plant
and animal life in this region. Evidence of this was the naming of the San Pedro
River, Arizona's last remaining undammed river, as one of The Nature Conservancy's
"Last Great Places," and as one of the premier birding areas in the
continental United States.
The CHA support center is located in lower Hot Springs Canyon, beside a streambed which is normally dry (known locally as a wash). Occasionally, during rainy periods, water flows in the wash near the support center. Further upstream, water flows year round through the Muleshoe Preserve, the Nature Conservancy's third largest U.S. holding.