Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

What’s so special about Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument? After all, there’s Saguaro National Park easily accessible right outside Tucson. Organ Pipe NM is a good three-hour drive from Tucson and a desert is a desert, right? Turns out that’s not quite true.

Organ Pipe Cactus NM is unique in that the organ pipe is a large cactus rarely found in the United States. It is delicate and very fickle and doesn’t grow in other American deserts. Frost restrains forests of them from growing further north. The organ pipe is a many-stemmed cactus without any apparent trunk, resembling an old-fashioned pipe organ. Some specimens grow twenty-five feet tall and have a hundred arms. Each arm is pleated with twelve to nineteen ridges. The fruit provides sustenance for both animals and people.

Organ Pipe NM was created in 1937 to preserve a representative area of the Sonoran Desert, part of a movement in the National Parks to protect not just scenic wonders but also the ecological wonders of the country. In 1976 it became a first-generation UNESCO biosphere reserve for the conservation of the unique resources of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem.

Organ Pipe NM straddles two Sonoran Desert plant communities, the Lower Colorado River Valley and the Arizona Upland and includes elements of a third, the Central Gulf Coast. Biologically the Sonoran Desert is the richest and most diverse of North America’s four arid regions.

The Colorado River Valley community is drier with saltbush, creosote, and bursage.

The Arizona Upland is slightly wetter and higher and as a result more lush and greener. This community includes most of the large cacti, ironwood, mesquite, jojoba, agave, juniper and spring wildflowers. Late January we were too early for spring wildflowers but we were able to identify many other plants.

Within the monument, signs of long and diverse use by American Indians, Mexicans, and Europeans intersect significantly archeologically, geographically and internationally. In 1450 the Hohokam dispersed into Tohono O’odham and Hia Ced O’odham cultures. The Tohono O’odham have special rights within the monument and Quitobaquito Springs is the O’odham Nation’s sacred pond. In 1540 a member of the Coronado Expedition was the first European to cross the region. In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain and Organ Pipe remained a part of Mexico until the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Mining and ranching were the main economic forces prior to establishment of the monument in 1937. Special permits allowed ranching to continue and in 1941 Congress passed an act to allow mining within the monument for the duration of WWII. All grazing rights were terminated in 1959 and the final cattle were removed from the park in 1975.

First stop at Organ Pipe NM is the Kris Eggle Visitor Center. Kris Eggle was a law enforcement ranger at Organ Pipe who was killed in the line of duty in 2002 and the visitor center was renamed in his honor. At the visitor center we picked up information on the two scenic drives and set off to explore the park. (These scenic drives are unpaved).

We took both drives and the differences in the two Sonoran desert ecosystems became readily apparent. There’s the “green” desert and the “dry” desert.

Puerto Blanco Drive is 41 miles and takes 4-5 hours. High clearance vehicles are recommended past Pinkley Peak at which point it becomes a one-way road and is narrow and very sandy in places. The drive circles the Puerto Blanco Mountains around the north past the Dripping Springs Mine trail, Golden Bell Mine, and Bonita Well.

Throughout the Monument, Humane Borders (a non-profit volunteer organization) maintains a system of water stations to save people (wilderness hikers as well as migrants) from death by dehydration. Water stations have proven to be statistically significant in reducing deaths as well as search-and-rescue operations and destruction of natural resources.

At Quitobaquito turnoff, it becomes the two-way South Puerto Blanco Drive along the southern border of the Monument and, as well, the United States.

Ajo Mountain Drive is 21 miles and takes 2-3 hours. A one-way circle with an abundance of plants and animals (although we didn’t see any of the animals). The Sonoran Desert is home to over 4,000 species of plants and animals. Organ Pipe NM experiences only a few frosty nights a year which allows the namesake organ pipe cacti to stay warm and flourish. Organ pipe cacti crave the sun’s heat and do not require nurse plants. At night the rocks surrounding the plant release heat stored during the day thus keeping the plants from freezing. They are prevalent on south-facing slopes with little vegetation near them.

Late January was a very pleasant time to visit Organ Pipe National Monument. I’m not sure we would want to go hiking or exploring there in the summer.