At the west of the Pajaritos and adjacent to the San Luis range, and Cobre Ridge peaks, is the Pajarita Wilderness.

In the west of the range at the Pajarita Wilderness, a water divide makes some drainages flow south into northern Sonora.

As part of southeast Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Sonora and northwest Chihuahua's Madrean Sky Islands, mountainous sky island region, birdwatching finds these mountain sites as prime locales for bird species ranging north out of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera.

The Highlands are northwest of Nogales and are bordered on the east by the Santa Cruz River Valley, that is traversed north-south by Interstate 19.

The sequence of the north-to-south Tumacacori Highlands is as follows: North-to-south: A Santa Cruz county-border "bootheel" extends southwest; the bootheel contains Cobre Ridge, and it is connected northwest to a small range, the San Luis Mountains which are in the southeast of the Altar Valley, and borders the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.