When I found out I had to travel to Phoenix and Tucson for a business trip, I immediately started looking for places to hike and photograph. Having never been to Arizona before, I began at my usual starting place: Google Maps.

Parks and nature areas are clearly shown on these maps and it is easy to spot parks — especially some of the large ones like Sonoran Desert National Monument and Coronado National Forest. However, I was also interested in a large park located on the border with Mexico: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. After reading up on this park and learning that it is less often visited and offered a variety of terrain, trails and hiking options, I knew it was for me.

There isn’t a lot of information about how to get to the park, where to stay and what to do, so I wanted to put this guide together for any of you interested in visiting. I will discuss the hiking, driving and photography in a separate post.

Getting There

The park is only about 150 miles from Phoenix, but plan on the drive taking 2.5-3 hours to get there You’ll also be driving on a two lane road (AZ-85) for a majority of your trip. Once you get onto AZ-85 from I-10, there aren’t a lot of places to stop and get supplies or gas. Only three towns are in between the highway and the park (Gila Bend, Ajo and Why), so a cooler and a full-tank of gas are a necessity.

You’ll pass by some beautiful desert landscapes on your way to the park as well as some interesting towns and the Barry Goldwater Air Force range. I was lucky enough to see planes doing practice bombing runs while driving.

Lodging

The cities of Why and Ajo are within 10-20 miles of the park and only Ajo offers substantial food and lodging. I would recomment staying at the Ajo Las Siesta Motel since it gets fairly good reviews, is clean and inexpensive. Rooms or cabins are about $50/night. Don’t expect a lot of frills, but there is cable and telephone, along with a pool and hot tub.

Food

There aren’t a lot of options for food in Ajo and Why. Pizza Hut is the only chain restaurant I saw, but I recommend going to Marcela’s Cafe. It’s a locally-owned Mexican restaurant with good food and service. It closes at 8 p.m., so make sure to get there early. There is also grocery store if you are looking to get supplies or cook for yourself.

Entering the Park

AZ-85 runs North to South through the middle of the park, so you can’t miss it if you stay on this highway. There is a great visitor center on the right side of the road about 15 miles after you see the sign to enter the park where I recommend stopping first.

If you continue on AZ-85 for just a few miles, you will pass Lukeville, which is simply a truck stop and then you’ll be on the border of Mexico. Because this is a border area, expect A LOT of border patrol vehicles and check points.

Note: This can be a dangerous area because of the promimity to the border, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary while I was there.

In the next post, I will provide information on the two scenic drives you can take and a few of the hikes I tried. In the meantime, you can see some of my pictures from the visit on my personal site and on Flickr.