Images of Ironwood Forest National Monument – Southern Arizona, taken in April 2019.

Established in 2000, Ironwood Forest National Monument is only a few miles west of Saguaro National Park and therefore only about 30 minutes from where I reside when in Tucson, yet this is the first time I have ventured into the park. It’s true; the places closest to you are the ones you seem to take for granted and put off seeing…guilty as charged!

This park is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) park and therefore has no amenities or services and only a few miles of paved roads. I started my trip on the south side of the park taking an all-wheel drive road around the Silverbell Copper Mine and then headed north and east into the heart of the park. For anyone that is interested, this is the long way into the park and unless you are interested in copper mine tailing mounds you can skip this path and head directly into the park on Silverbell Road instead.

The star of this park is of course the Ironwood tree which is made up of heavy dense wood, can grow up to 40 feet tall, and in some cases can live to be 800 years old. These trees grow among the Saguaro cacti and the more common Palo Verde and Mesquite trees. The entire scene is punctuated by the rugged Ragged Top Mountain and Walcott Peak which provide a backdrop for the surrounding desert.