Chiricahua National Park

Chiricahua is the newest national park in the United States. For 102 years it was Chiricahua National Monument, set aside by President Calvin Coolidge on April 18, 1924, and on October 20, 2026, when President Trump signed the Chiricahua National Park Act (Public Law 119-133), it became the country's 64th national park. The Park Service says the change is mainly one of name and recognition: the boundaries are the same, about 12,000 acres, and fees, permits and services are unchanged. Some signs and maps will still say "National Monument" for a while.

The park protects a landscape of rhyolite pinnacles, spires and balanced rocks in the Chiricahua Mountains, often called the Wonderland of Rocks. The rock comes from an immense eruption of the nearby Turkey Creek Caldera about 27 million years ago; the ash cooled into rhyolitic tuff, which erosion has carved into the present formations. The name comes from an Opata word for wild turkey, and the Park Service gives the pronunciation as "cheery-cow-ah".

Most visitors start with the 8-mile Bonita Canyon Drive, which climbs past Faraway Ranch and the visitor center to Massai Point, where the half-mile Massai Point Nature Trail loops around the parking area past viewpoints over the rocks. The scenic drive has a 24-foot vehicle limit and no trailers. Seventeen miles of trails lead into the rocks. The Echo Canyon Grottoes, half a mile from the Echo Canyon parking area, are a short walk to tunnel-like formations, the Echo Canyon Loop (about 3.3 miles) is the park's own pick among moderate hikes, and the strenuous 7.4-mile round trip to the Heart of Rocks Loop reaches Big Balanced Rock and Pinnacle Balanced Rock. The 1.8-mile round trip up Sugarloaf Mountain, at 7,310 feet, ends at a fire lookout built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937.

The park's human story runs from the Chiricahua Apache, whose homeland this was, through Buffalo Soldiers, ranchers and the CCC. Faraway Ranch was started by Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson; their daughter Hildegard began taking guests in 1917, and her sister Lillian and Lillian's husband Ed Riggs built the first trails into the rocks and backed the campaign for the monument.

Around 200 bird species have been documented in the area. Chiricahua has been an International Dark Sky Park since 2021, and the road and restrooms stay open all night for stargazers. Bicycles, e-bikes and climbing are banned on the trails, and dogs are allowed on only a few. The hiker shuttle was not running as of the park's latest notice, so plan loop hikes or arrange your own ride.