# Chiricahua National Park — rhyolite pinnacles, balanced rocks and the newest US national park

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Last reviewed: 31 October 2026

Part of The US National Parks

- **Where:** Northern Chiricahua Mountains, south-eastern Arizona
- **Coordinates:** 32.01° N, 109.36° W (visitor centre, NPS)
- **Established:** Monument 18 April 1924;, national park October 2026
- **Area:** About 12,000 acres, (Park Service FAQ)
- **Elevation:** Visitor centre 5,400 ft;, Massai plateau 6,870 ft
- **Best visited:** All year; busiest in March, quietest in summer (NPS)
- **Advisory:** United States, (no State Department level)

## The short answer

Chiricahua National Park is a unit of the US National Park Service at the northern end of the Chiricahua Mountains in south-eastern Arizona. The Park Service’s anniversaries table dates it from 18 April 1924, when Chiricahua National Monument was proclaimed. Its Recent Changes page lists the monument as renamed Chiricahua National Park on 20 October 2026 under Public Law 119-133; the park’s own questions page says the Chiricahua National Park Act, H.R. 6380, was signed into law on 30 September 2026. The same page says the boundaries did not change and the park remains approximately 12,000 acres, most of it federally designated wilderness, and that fees, permits and management rules stayed as they were. The Park Service’s National Park System page now counts 64 national parks, and the park’s questions page calls Chiricahua the newest. In 2025 the park welcomed 70,406 visitors, it says.

## Why it's worth knowing

A canyon of standing rocks. The rhyolite pinnacles are the park’s most noticeable feature, the Park Service says, many of them balancing on a small base. They are what is left of the Turkey Creek Caldera eruption south of the park, which it dates to roughly 27 million years ago and which formed a caldera about 12 miles wide; the ash and debris compacted into rhyolite tuff, which has fissured and eroded into the pillars. The Civilian Conservation Corps, which worked here in the 1930s, named many of the formations. An 8-mile scenic drive climbs from the entrance to Massai Point, and the park counts 17 miles of trails into the rocks; the park calls the area the Wonderland of Rocks.

A sky island. The Park Service describes the Chiricahua Mountains as an inactive volcanic range twenty miles wide and forty miles long that rises about 6,000 feet above the Sulphur Springs Valley. The visitor centre stands at 5,400 feet; Chiricahua Peak, the range’s high point, is outside the park at 9,795 feet. The park lists traits of five biomes, from desert on its west side to coniferous forest near its highest ground, and counts more than 1,000 plant species. Around 200 bird species have been documented in the area, it says, including thirteen species of hummingbirds, many of them Mexican species rarely seen in the United States, and it says the American Bird Conservancy has identified the Chiricahua Mountains as an Important Bird Area. Gould’s turkeys, a subspecies hunted to rarity in Arizona, were reintroduced with 35 birds caught in Mexico; in 2014 more than 1,200 were counted in Arizona and New Mexico.

A dark sky. Chiricahua was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2021, the Park Service says, and calls it the 104th. The park is always open, and it names Massai Point, the Echo Canyon trailhead and the campground as places to watch the night sky.

## The field notes

### Stones carved by soldiers

In 1886, before they left their camp in Bonita Canyon, men of Troops E and H of the 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, built a three-tiered stone monument to President James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated in 1881, the Park Service says. Some stones carry names in script, others in block print so even they look typed; a few carry crossed sabres, a troop letter or a date. One carries the name of Henry O. Flipper, in 1877 the first African American graduate of West Point, who was not stationed in the canyon; the park suggests an admiring soldier carved it. By the 1920s the monument was crumbling and visitors had taken stones as souvenirs, so Lillian and Ed Riggs took it apart and rebuilt it as the fireplace of their guest ranch’s dining room. Sixty engraved stones are in it.

### A ranch so far away

Faraway Ranch began as a two-room cabin bought by Emma Peterson, a Swedish immigrant, in December 1886; she married Neil Erickson in January 1887 and the couple settled on the 160-acre homestead, the Park Service says. In 1903 Neil became the first ranger for the Chiricahua Forest Reserve. Their daughter Lillian and her husband Ed Riggs turned the house into a guest ranch, and the park credits the ranch, “awful far away from it all”, with bringing the Wonderland of Rocks into public view; guests rode up to the rocks for picnics. When the monument passed from the Forest Service to the Park Service, more than 6,000 people in 1,000 cars came to the 1934 dedication at Massai Point, where Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees cooked 1,000 pounds of beans and several tons of beef.

### A name and a homeland

The park says Chiricahua comes from an Opata word meaning wild turkey, according to the Jesuit Juan Nentvig, writing in the mid-1700s. The mountains were the homeland of the Chiricahua Apache, who the park says entered the region between 1400 and 1500 and whose population before the Apache Wars of 1861 was estimated at around 1,200; it lists twenty tribes with a connection to the park today. Massai Point may carry a mistaken name, the park says: Massai was a Chiricahua Apache scout for the US Army who was nevertheless put on the train taking the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches to Florida, jumped from it in Missouri and walked home to Arizona, and was later accused by settlers of raids he did not commit. The Riggs family asked for the high point to be named for him.

**The Relic**

A carved stone in the Faraway Ranch fireplace. Men of Troops E and H of the 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, built a three-tiered monument to President James A. Garfield in 1886 before they left Bonita Canyon, and carved its stones: names in script, names in block print so neat they look typed, crossed sabres, troop letters, dates, and the name of Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point. When the monument crumbled and visitors began carrying stones away, Lillian and Ed Riggs took it apart and rebuilt it as the fireplace of their guest dining room. The Park Service calls the sixty engraved stones in it the most tangible connection to the soldiers stationed in the canyon.

## Getting there

How to get there. The Park Service names Tucson as the nearest airport, and says a private car is the best, if not the only, way to reach the park: ride-share apps and taxis do not operate there. From Interstate 10 at Willcox (exits 336, 340 or 344), follow Highway 186 for 32 miles, then turn left onto Highway 181; the park is straight ahead 4 miles on Highway 181. From the south, Highway 191 meets Highway 181 at Sunizona, about 26 miles from the park. There is one entrance, and the paved road ends at Massai Point rather than crossing the range. Fuel, charging and groceries are 30 to 40 miles away, in Willcox or Sunizona. Vehicles over 24 feet may not go beyond the campground, and vehicles over 29 feet and day-use trailers stop at Faraway Ranch, the park says.

When to go. The park is open all year. March is its busiest month, it says, and winter visitors keep it busy through school breaks in October, December and March; summer has the fewest visitors. Snow can fall between November and April, and the creeks traditionally run in spring with the snowmelt and in late summer after monsoon rains.

What to arrange ahead. The park’s fees page, read on 31 October 2026, says it charges no entrance or parking fee. The campground is by reservation only. The park’s hikers’ shuttle was “not running as of fall 2025”, its basic information page said on 31 October 2026.

Safety. The State Department’s travel advisories cover other countries, so none applies here. The park warns of thin air for visitors from lower elevations, summer heat and monsoon storms, winter cold and snow, and limited mobile reception; it prohibits bicycles and e-bikes on its trails and rock climbing on its unstable formations, and it prohibits feeding birds.

## For birders

DesignationThe Park Service says the American Bird Conservancy has identified the Chiricahua Mountains as an Important Bird Area.Source: National Park Service (Chiricahua birds page) · read 31 October 2026
RecordedThe Park Service says around 200 bird species have been documented in the area, including thirteen species of hummingbirds.Source: National Park Service (Chiricahua birds page) · read 31 October 2026
Named in the recordThe Park Service names the elegant trogon and the magnificent hummingbird among Mexican species that cross the border, and the Mexican jay as one of the most common birds.Source: National Park Service (Chiricahua birds page) · read 31 October 2026
Where the source pointsThe Park Service calls Bonita Creek often the best place for birding in the park.Source: National Park Service (Chiricahua scenic drive page) · read 31 October 2026
Visitor ruleThe Park Service says feeding birds is prohibited.Source: National Park Service (Chiricahua birds page) · read 31 October 2026

All 36 birding places →

## Common questions

#### When did Chiricahua become a national park?

The National Park Service’s Recent Changes page lists Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, as renamed Chiricahua National Park on 20 October 2026, under Public Law 119-133. The park’s own questions page says the Chiricahua National Park Act, H.R. 6380, was signed into law on 30 September 2026. The monument had been proclaimed on 18 April 1924.

#### Is Chiricahua the newest US national park?

Yes, by the National Park Service’s account in October 2026. Its National Park System page counts 64 national parks, and Chiricahua National Park’s questions page calls it the newest, the 64th, after its redesignation from a national monument in 2026.

#### Did the park change when it was renamed?

Chiricahua’s questions page says the 2026 law did not change the boundaries, which still enclose approximately 12,000 acres, and authorises no expansion. It says current fees and permits remain in effect, existing rules on hunting, grazing, collection and pets stay, and new signs will replace old ones as funding allows.

#### How were the rock pinnacles at Chiricahua formed?

The National Park Service says an eruption roughly 27 million years ago formed the Turkey Creek Caldera, about 12 miles wide, just south of Chiricahua. Its ash and debris compacted into rhyolite tuff, which has fissured and eroded into the pinnacles and balanced rocks, some rising hundreds of feet.

#### How do you get to Chiricahua National Park?

The Park Service names Tucson as the nearest airport. From Interstate 10 at Willcox, Arizona, drivers follow Highway 186 for 32 miles and then Highway 181 for 4 miles to the single entrance; from the south, Highway 181 runs about 26 miles from Sunizona. Taxis and ride-share services do not operate there.

#### Does Chiricahua charge an entrance fee?

No. Chiricahua National Park’s fees page, read on 31 October 2026, says the park has no entrance or parking fees and so sells no passes; campground fees and reservations are handled separately. The surrounding Coronado National Forest is not run by the Park Service and may charge in some areas.

#### What is the Garfield fireplace at Faraway Ranch?

It is a fireplace at Faraway Ranch in Chiricahua National Park built from a stone monument to President James A. Garfield that men of the 10th Cavalry’s Troops E and H made in 1886. The Park Service says sixty engraved stones are in it, one carved with Henry O. Flipper’s name.

#### Is Chiricahua a dark-sky park?

Yes. The National Park Service says Chiricahua was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2021, the 104th. The park is always open, and it names Massai Point, the Echo Canyon trailhead and the Bonita Canyon campground as places to watch the night sky.

What to pack: the Road trips kit, hot, sun and storm season

## Related places

Mesa Verdealso in The US National Parks · about 580 km away
Big Bend National Parkalso in The US National Parks · about 650 km away
Joshua Tree National Parkalso in The US National Parks · about 660 km away
Archesalso in The US National Parks · about 750 km away
Petrified Forest National Parkalso in The US National Parks · about 320 km away

Notes on sources. The National Park Service’s pages for Chiricahua National Park (nps.gov/chir), read directly on 31 October 2026, supplied: from the questions page, the Chiricahua National Park Act and its 30 September 2026 signing, the unchanged boundaries and 12,000 acres, the wilderness, the unchanged fees and rules, the 2025 visitor figure, the busiest months, the snow and creeks, the Opata name and Juan Nentvig, the 2021 dark-sky designation and the twenty tribes; from the basic information, directions and fees pages, the routes and distances, the airport, the single entrance, the vehicle limits, the fuel distance, the absence of taxis, the shuttle notice and the absence of fees; from the nature, geologic formations, sky islands, lightscape, birds and Gould’s turkey pages, the eruption, the caldera, the rhyolite tuff, the Civilian Conservation Corps names, the range’s size, elevations and biomes, the plant and bird counts, the hummingbirds, the Important Bird Area, the turkeys and the 104th dark-sky park; from the scenic drive and hiking pages, the 8 miles to Massai Point and the 17 miles of trails; from the Faraway Ranch, Garfield Monument, Massai Point and Apache history pages, the Ericksons and the Riggses, the guest ranch, the 1934 dedication, the monument and its stones, Henry Flipper, Massai and the Apache history; and from the park’s alerts file, the vehicle limits. The Park Service’s anniversaries table supplied the 18 April 1924 proclamation, its Recent Changes page the 20 October 2026 renaming and Public Law 119-133, and its National Park System page the count of 64. The two dates for the change are both the Park Service’s, and this page gives both. The Garfield Monument page dates the fireplace to 1920 while the Faraway Ranch page places the new dining room after Lillian’s 1923 marriage, so no year is given for it. The coordinates are the visitor centre’s, from the park’s linked-data file. Checked 31 October 2026. Written and fact-checked by SockMonkey.com. Last reviewed 31 October 2026.