It has an east–west ridgeline at the north perimeter with the Beaver River in the west, and Minersville Reservoir in the center; the northeast foothills border the region of Beaver-Greenville, Utah.

The highpoint of the range, Mahogany Knoll, is in the northeast on the ridgeline, the line between Iron and Beaver Counties.

The Old Spanish National Historic Trail followed the summit, (only 1 mile [1.6 km][3] between Black Mountains and Hurricane Cliffs), and crossed west across the north region of Cedar Valley, at the south terminus of the Black Mountains ridgeline, near Enoch.

South of the Black Mountains is the Red Hills range, which contains the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs site.

The range is dissected west of center, by the north–south Utah State Route 130 (SR-130), from Minersville at the range's northwest region, (and the northeast Escalante Desert); SR-130 goes south through Parowan Canyon, and then across an alluvial plains region of Long Hollow, between two southwest-trending ridgelines.