Photointerpretation of late Pleistocene-Holocene rock glaciers on Sacaton Mountain and Escudilla Mountain, Datil-Mogollon upland, west-central New Mexico and east-central Arizona
— John W. Blagbrough

Rock glaciers on the flanks of Sacaton Mountain and Escudilla Mountain are below talus-mantled cliffs and slopes at an average elevation of about 2940-2980 m. They have surface features indicative of icecemented (permafrost) forms that moved by the flow of interstitial ice, and delineate ancient zones of alpine permafrost that probably existed in the late Wisconsinan and early Holocene. Within these zones the mean annual temperature was below freezing and snow cover was thin and of short duration. The rock glaciers probably formed during the late Wisconsinan under a periglacial climate characterized by much freezing and thawing, resulting in the generation of large volumes of talus. The rise in elevation of rock glacier occurrences from east to west across west-central New Mexico and east-central Arizona is attributed to greater snow fall in the Datil-Mogollon Upland, which reduced the depth and intensity of ground freezing near the late Wisconsinan 0°C air isotherm.