Home › Parks & Public Lands › National Parks
Saguaro National Park
Two desert districts flanking Tucson, home of the giant saguaro
The saguaro, the tall, many-armed cactus that has come to stand for the entire American West, grows naturally only in the Sonoran Desert. Saguaro National Park protects dense forests of them in two districts on either side of Tucson, Arizona, covering about 143 square miles (371 km²) together. A saguaro may not sprout its first arm until it is 50 to 70 years old, and the largest can top 40 feet (12 m) and live more than 150 years. Their flowers are Arizona's state wildflower, and bats, birds and insects pollinate them.
President Herbert Hoover proclaimed Saguaro National Monument in the Rincon Mountains in 1933, and President John F. Kennedy added the Tucson Mountain District in 1961. Congress combined them into a national park on October 14, 1994. The Rincon Mountain District climbs to 8,666 feet (2,641 m) on Mica Mountain, a sky island where pine and fir forests rise above the desert. The Tohono O'odham have harvested saguaro fruit for generations, and Hohokam petroglyphs mark Signal Hill in the western district.