About The Monument

An incredible landscape recognized for its rugged scenery, biological diversity and cultural legacy located 25 miles northwest of Tucson. These 129,000 acres contain several desert mountain ranges including the Silver Bell, Sawtooth, and Waterman ranges, and the iconic Ragged Top Mountain.

The Monument contains a significant system of cultural and historic sites covering a 5,000-year period. The Monument home to threatened and endangered species; including Nichols Turk’s head cactus, lesser long-nosed bat, and desert tortoise.

Learn more about the Ironwood Forest National Monument

“The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life-forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

– Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire