Mazatzal Mountains

Rank in Arizona: #243of 727 ranked
Overall score: Score 44.4 out of 100medium confidence
Most looked up: Marchby Wikipedia readers
Category: Natural Landmark

The Mazatzal Mountains are a mountain range in south-central Arizona, about 30 to 45 miles north-east of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The origin of the name is obscure; one possibility is that it comes from the Nahuatl language, meaning place of the deer. The crest of the range forms the county line between Maricopa County and Gila County, and State Route 87, the Beeline Highway, crosses it on the way to Payson. The highest peak is Mazatzal Peak, at 7,903 feet; the range also includes the Four Peaks, at 7,659 feet, a landmark of the eastern Phoenix area. The Mazatzal Wilderness Area protects 252,500 acres of the Tonto and Coconino national forests, from 2,100 feet at Sheep Bridge in the south-west to the summit of Mazatzal Peak; it was established in 1940 and expanded to its present size in 1984. The eastern side of the wilderness is brush- and pine-covered mountain, broken in places by narrow vertical-walled canyons, while on the west, below the steep foothills, the Verde River flows through the Sonoran Desert. Congress designated the Verde one of Arizona's two Wild and Scenic Rivers in 1984.

Where it is

Mazatzal Mountains is a natural landmark near Roosevelt, in Maricopa County. It is one of the natural landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Mazatzal Mountains, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.

More photographs

Brady Smith; Coconino National Forest, CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Matrixupgrade, CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)

Nearby attractions

2.8 miles away
Four Peaks
A four-summit massif in the Mazatzal Mountains east of Phoenix, rising to 7,659 feet at Brown's Peak, the highest point in Maricopa County.
Natural Landmark
8.8 miles away
Skeleton Cave
A cave in the Salt River Canyon Wilderness, site of the 1872 massacre of Yavapai people and listed on the National Register in 1991.
Natural Landmark
9.4 miles away
Tonto Basin
The drainage basin of Tonto Creek in central Arizona, running south-west of the Mogollon Rim to Theodore Roosevelt Lake.
Natural Landmark
12 miles away
Canyon Lake
The smallest of four Salt River reservoirs, formed by Mormon Flat Dam in 1925 and covering 950 acres in the Superstition Wilderness.
Natural Landmark
13 miles away
Theodore Roosevelt Lake
The largest reservoir lying entirely within Arizona, formed on the Salt River by a dam Theodore Roosevelt dedicated in 1911.
Natural Landmark
13 miles away
Saguaro Lake
The fourth reservoir on the Salt River, formed by Stewart Mountain Dam and managed within the Tonto National Forest.
Natural Landmark