Chiricahua in Arizona: rock-spire landscape becomes 64th US national park

The United States has its first new national park since 2021: President Donald Trump signed the Chiricahua National Park Act on 20 October, the US Department of the Interior announced on 21 October. According to AP, the former national monument near Willcox in southeastern Arizona thus becomes the country's 64th national park and the first new one since New River Gorge in West Virginia (2021). The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Juan Ciscomani, had bipartisan support in Congress. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the area covers about 12,000 acres, roughly 49 square kilometres.

The area is known for towering spires and balanced rocks of rhyolite, which the ministry says were formed by a volcanic eruption about 27 million years ago. Early settlers called it the 'Wonderland of Rocks', AP reports. The Chiricahua Mountains are a 'sky island', a mountain range where desert, grassland and forest meet. The area is the historical homeland of the Chiricahua Apache, and Faraway Ranch recalls early homesteading families. The landscape has been protected since 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge declared it a national monument.

So far, about 60,000 people visit each year, according to AP and the NPS. NPS officials, whose agency has been hit by staff cuts, declined to say whether additional staff would be hired for the expected increase in visitors, AP reported. The law guarantees the Apache access for traditional ceremonies; details are still open. Travellers should mind the climate: from mid-June to the end of September the monsoon brings thunderstorms and flash floods, according to the NPS, and from January to March trails are often icy. According to the NPS, the terrain lies between about 1,560 metres (entrance) and 2,230 metres (Sugarloaf Mountain) above sea level.