Lichen communities are essential to their ecosystems as they provide a means of nitrogen fixation, suitable growing conditions, and resources to other organisms across diverse environments. Their community structure can be impacted by changes in abiotic factors such as temperature, pollution, precipitation, and sunlight. It is widely assumed that lichen prefer to grow on the northern faces of their substrates because it is believed they experience less desiccation and UV radiation from sunlight exposure. This study aimed to identify whether or not lichen community variation could be explained by differences in sunlight exposure. We conducted an observational study at the Sweeney Granite Mountains Research Center where we surveyed 86 rocks, measuring their abiotic factors such as sunlight exposure, rock size, slope, and lichen diversity of the northern and southern faces of the rock. The northern rock faces displayed higher diversity than southern rock faces. We found that north and south facing rocks experience different sunlight exposure in a day. Our findings showed that sunlight variation alone does not account for the lichen community growing preferences. More extreme slope angles showed less lichen species. Although sunlight exposure on the northern face may not completely explain the variation within lichen communities, other microenvironmental factors, such as slope, are also involved in shaping the community structure and require further research.