Saddle Mountain lies 45 miles west of Phoenix and just southwest of Tonopah, Arizona. There is a trailhead at the north end of Saddle Mountain about 0.5 miles east of the BLM Saddle Mountain dispersed camp site.
Saddle Mountain is comprised of mid-Tertiary volcanic deposits ranging from basalt or basaltic lava flows and cinders to capping silicic volcanic tuff – ash flow and ashfall – of local derivation. Silicic lava flows are similar to the tuffs and are biotite-hornblende andesite or dacite. Saddle Mountain is dominantly made up of hornblende-pyroxene lava flows and breccias.
Michael Ort and Steve Skotnicki mapped the geology here in 1993. They remarked on the great thickness of breccia exposed at Saddle Mountain and environs. Photo by Esty Pape.
Resource: Ort, M.H., Skotnicki, S.J., 1993, Geologic map of Saddle Mountain, Maricopa County, Arizona. Arizona Geological Survey Open File Report, OFR-93-06, 1 map sheet, map scale 1:24,000, 12 p.
Photographer: Esty Pape
Photo Date: circa 2021
Photo Location Accuracy: Known Location
Photo Tags: Saddle Mountain, volcanics, tuff, basalt, andesite, dacite, lava flows 
