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Arizona
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State of Arizona Parks

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USA Parks
Arizona
Tuscon & Southern Region
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
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Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge © Hollingsworth, John and Karen - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
View from Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona 1
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge © PhillipC / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bighorn in Cabeza Prieta, 1996
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge © DiverDave / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
sign along El Camino Del Diablo roadside at western entrance to Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge © U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Pinta sand dunes in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge wilderness, AZ. Credit USFWS
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge © Gentry George, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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CABEZA PRIETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
CABEZA PRIETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
1611 North Second Avenue
Ajo, Arizona   85321

Phone: 520-387-6483
Email: park email button icon
A journey into the third largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states takes plenty of water and desert survival skills. Almost all of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is designated wilderness. Seven rugged mountain ranges cast shadows above valleys dotted with sand dunes and lava flows. The 1,000-square-mile refuge shares a 56-mile international border with Sonora, Mexico.

Temperatures may top 100 degrees for 90 to 100 straight days from June to October. Summer thundershowers and winter soaking rains average about 7.5 cm on the western part of the refuge and up to 20 cm on the east side, 60 miles away. The winter and summer pattern of rainfall in the Sonoran desert stimulates the growth of more plant species than in most deserts. You'll find creosote bush flats, bursage on the bajadas, mesquite, palo verde, ironwood, and an abundance of cacti, including ocotillo, cholla, and saguaro.

Endangered Sonoran pronghorn and lesser long-nosed bats call this parched land home, as do desert bighorns, lizards, rattlesnakes, and desert tortoises. Elf owls peer from holes carved in saguaros by Gila woodpeckers. Every plant and animal has adapted to life we would find uninhabitable. Far from a barren desert, Cabeza Prieta NWR harbors as many as 420 plant species and more than 300 kinds of wildlife.

Cabeza Prieta, Spanish for "black head," refers to a lava-topped, granite peak in a remote mountain range in the western corner of the refuge.

Nature of the Area
Sonoran wildlife possess a chest of tools to beat the desert's heat and hang in there for months without rain. The only water sources around are natural rock basins, called tinajas, that catch rainwater, a few artificial water storage areas, flowing washes after rains, and one intermittent seep.

Burrowing, nocturnal living, and astonishing water conservation techniques are just a few of the many ways animals adapt to life here.

History of the Area
The prehistoric Indians who survived here as hunters and gatherers knew how to reap the riches of the desert. They collected cactus fruit and mesquite beans and hunted bighorn and small game.


Location
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is


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Directions
Cabeza Prieta NWR refuge office/visitor center is in Ajo, in southwestern Arizona.

From Phoenix: Take I-10 west to exit 112, follow Highway 85 south to Gila Bend, continue south on 85 approximately 40 miles to Ajo.

From Tucson: Take Highway 86 (Ajo Way) west across the Tohono O'odham reservation to Why, follow Highway 85 north to Ajo.

From Yuma: take I-8 east to Gila Bend, follow Highway 85 south approximately 40 miles to Ajo.

The refuge office is on the west side of the highway at the north end of town.

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Arizona
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