This site* features photographs and descriptions of the nature of Elephant Butte and Sierra County, New Mexico, USA. Sierra county has a wide variety of plants and animals due to its climate, topography and varied habitats. Wildflowers are most abundant after our summer rainy season but can be found even during times of drought. Home to three Audubon Important Bird Areas, Sierra county is a birder's paradise.

Located in southwestern New Mexico, Sierra county (map) is in the Mexican Highland section of the Basin and Range Province. Its irregular western border is the Black Range, including Hillsboro and Reeds peaks, both rising to more than 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The Rio Grande, including the Caballo and Elephant Butte reservoirs, flows southward through the centre of the county. Immediately east of the reservoirs are the Sierra Caballo and Fra Cristobal Range; the Jornada del Muerto desert separates those mountains from the San Andreas Mountains in the northeast. Sierra county includes Gila National Forest, Aldo Leopold Wilderness, and Percha Dam, Caballo Lake, and Elephant Butte Lake state parks.