Willcox Playa

Willcox Playa
240px View facing east across the Willcox Playa toward the Dos Cabezas Mountains from a point just east of Cochise, Arizona.
Location in the state of Arizona
Location	Cochise County, Arizona
Nearest city	Willcox
Coordinates
Area	2,369 acres (959 ha)
Designated	1966

The Willcox Playa is a large endorheic dry lake or sink (playa) adjacent to Willcox, Arizona in Cochise County, in the southeast corner of the state. It is part of the Sonoran Desert ecoregion and is the remnant of a Pleistocene era pluvial Lake Cochise. Portions of the dry lake bed have been used as a bombing range by the US military. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966 for its fossil pollen captured underground, the thousands of sandhill cranes that roost in the area and the largest diversity of tiger beetles in the United States.

Location

The Willcox Playa is located in the northern region of Sulphur Springs Valley; drainage to the playa from the east is from the connected Dos Cabezas-Chiricahua Mountains; drainage from the southwest is from the Dragoon Mountains, and the Little Dragoon Mountains. During the summer, intense solar heating sometimes gives rise to large dust devils, and strong winds from thunderstorms and winter storms can produce dust storms rising from the dry lake that can hinder traffic on the Interstate 10 highway.

Willcox Playa Wildlife Area

In the vicinity of the dry lake is the Willcox Playa Wildlife Area administered by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The location boasts rich wildlife, including an annual twitcher festival called "Wings Over Willcox".

External links

• Willcox Playa Arizona Game and Fish Department
• Arizona Heritage Waters