Saguaro National Park

While tourists-beginner travel through Mexico and look for giant cacti, experienced travelers come to the south of the US state of Arizona, in the vicinities of Tucson. Here is the Saguaro National Park. It is named after the highest cactus in North America - Saguaro or Carnegie.

A park of 91 thousand hectares was built in 1994 to protect the desert landscape and its inhabitants. Since then, more than half a million tourists visit it annually. It is divided into two parts - the eastern and western ones. Every one of them has its advantages. The number of plants in the eastern part exceeds the quantity of the western one more than double. At the same time, the number of Saguaro cacti in the west is four times more than in the east. It is over a million plants. Besides, there is the Sonora Desert Museum.

In total, more than 50 species of cacti grow on the territory of the national park. This is why it was named “cactus forest”. In addition to amazing Saguaro, here are Opuntia, Mammillaria, and Hedgehog cacti. In spring, the entire area of the desert looks like a bright fragrant coverlet, made of herbs and flowers. However, the main features of the park are giant flowers about 15 meters high and weighing more than 10 tons. These are the cacti of unusual shapes that we remind thinking about the "Wild West", Indians and cowboys.

Despite the hot desert climate, fauna is also diverse. Its representatives are cougars, red lynxes, coyotes, American foxes, and black bears. You can also meet badgers, raccoons, skunks, hares, squirrels, and chipmunks.