[3] Its southwest face has a sheer granite cliff approximately 500 feet (150 m) high that is one of the best locations for rock climbing in the state of Arizona.

[5][6] The Mint Wash Granodiorite consists of medium to coarse-grained, weakly to strongly porphyritic granite with phenocrysts of gray to pink potassium feldspar up to 3 cm (1.2 in) in length and as much as eight percent biotite that is less than 8 mm (0.31 in) in size.

This granite grades laterally into a fine grained, equigranular leucogranite with less than two percent biotite that is less than 2 mm (0.079 in) in size.

Then, granitic igneous rock, e.g. the Mint Wash Pluton, were later intruded into them when these volcanic arcs collided with and welded to Laurentia and each other ca.

[8] The biotic communities at Granite Mountain range from montane conifer forest and juniper pinyon woodland, to interior chaparral.