Painted Rock Mountains Painted Rock Mountains The Painted Rocks Mountains are a short 15-mile (24 km) long mountain range of the north-central Sonoran Desert southwest of Phoenix, Arizona and in southwest Maricopa County. The Gila River flows through the central-north end of the range. The famous Painted Rock Petroglyph Site lies at the northeast end of the range, adjacent the Painted Rock Reservoir, and the reservoir lies at the eastern end of the agricultural river valley that is locally names as the Lower Gila River Valley, extending approximately from the Colorado River at Yuma to the west and the reservoir at the east.
Sahara Desert (ecoregion) east, and west by desert ecoregions with higher rainfall and more vegetation. The North Saharan steppe and woodlands ecoregion lies to the north and west, bordering the Mediterranean climate regions of Africa's Mediterranean and North Atlantic coasts. The North Saharan steppe and woodlands receives more regular winter rainfall than the Sahara Desert ecoregion. The South Saharan steppe and woodlands ecoregion lies to the south, between the Sahara Desert ecoregion and the Sahel grasslands. The South Saharan steppe and woodlands receives most of its annual rainfall during the summer. The Red Sea coastal desert lies in the coastal strip between the