South Mountains

The South Mountains are a mountain range in central Arizona, in south Phoenix, known locally as South Mountain. Most of the range is public land managed by the City of Phoenix as South Mountain Park, and a smaller portion extends into the Gila River Indian Community. Its O'odham name is Muhaḍagĭ Do'ag, its Yavapai name Wi:ki'tiyeda and its Maricopa name Vii Kwxas. Geologists interpret the range as a metamorphic core complex, raised by movement of the North American tectonic plates from south-west to north-east and back, which lifted a series of ranges. Ridges of the same orientation lie buried beneath the sediments filling the surrounding structural basin, perhaps fifteen of them, each about a kilometre high and a kilometre apart, so the Phoenix basin reads as a plain from which the mountains rise like islands. The range is considered sacred, as is the nearby Sierra Estrella.

Where it is

South Mountains is a natural landmark near Tempe, 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 South 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.