3693 S. Old Spanish Trail, Tucson, Arizona
The giant saguaro cactus, with its huge upright arms extending from a sturdy trunk, may after some 200 years reach a height of 50 feet. Literally thousands of these giant saguaro cacti fill the Sonoran Desert here in the eastern section of the national park’s two units.
© 2009 Larry Cannataro/NPS PhotoThe saguaro cactus at left sports a so-called cristate crown—a deformity that occurs in about one in 50,000 plants.The plants and creatures of the desert can be studied closely on an 8-mile drive that loops through the saguaro forest and also on a 1-mile nature trail near a sheltered picnic area. Over 50 miles of hiking and horseback-riding trails traverse a 58,000-acre wilderness and ascend to the summits of the fir-forested Rincon Mountains at an altitude of 8,700 feet.
–Open year-round. Admission charged.
(520) 733-5153
