Saguaro National Park

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Lore & Background

The volcanic rocks on the surface of the Tucson Mountain District differ greatly from the surface rocks of the Rincon Mountain District; over the past 30 million years, crustal stretching displaced rocks from beneath the Tucson Mountains of the Tucson Mountain District to form the Rincon Mountains of the Rincon Mountain District. Uplifted, domed, and eroded, the Rincon Mountains are significantly higher and wetter than the Tucson Mountains. The Rincons, as one of the Madrean Sky Islands between the southern Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico, support high biodiversity and are home to many plants and animals that do not live in the Tucson Mountain District. Earlier residents of and visitors to the lands in and around the park before its creation included the Hohokam, Sobaipuri, Tohono O'odham, Apaches, Spanish explorers, missionaries, miners, homesteaders, and ranchers. In 1933, President Herbert Hoover used the power of the Antiquities Act to establish the original park, Saguaro National Monument, in the Rincon Mountains. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy added the Tucson Mountain District to the monument and renamed the original tract the Rincon Mountain District. The United States Congress combined the Tucson Mountain District and the Rincon Mountain District to form the national park in 1994.

Reader's Guide

Popular activities in the park include hiking on its 165 miles (266 km) of trails and sightseeing along paved roads near its two visitor centers. Both districts allow bicycling and horseback riding on selected roads and trails. The Rincon Mountain District offers limited wilderness camping, but there is no overnight camping in the Tucson Mountain District. The park gets its name from the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), a large cactus that is native to the Sonoran Desert and that does not grow naturally elsewhere. Rincón—as in Rincon Mountains, Rincon Creek, and Rincon Valley—is Spanish for corner and refers to the shape of the mountain range and its footprint. The name Tucson derives from Papago-Piman words cuk ṣon [ˡtʃukʂɔn], meaning dark spring or brown spring. The park's oldest rocks, the Pinal Schist, predate the formation of the contemporary Basin and Range Province by about 1.7 billion years. The most common rock type in the Rincon Mountains is banded gneiss, visible at sites such as Javelina Rocks along the Cactus Forest Loop Drive.

Did You Know?

• The park's oldest rocks, the Pinal Schist, predate the formation of the Basin and Range Province by about 1.7 billion years.
• The Rincon Mountains are one of the Madrean Sky Islands between the southern Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico.
• The name Tucson derives from Papago-Piman words cuk ṣon, meaning dark spring or brown spring.
• The park has 165 miles (266 km) of trails for hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding.
• Three lime kilns from the late 19th century can still be visited in the Rincon Mountain District.