Sonoran Desert National Monument

The Sonoran Desert National Monument lies south of Goodyear and Buckeye and east of Gila Bend, Arizona. It was created by presidential proclamation on 17 January 2001 and covers 496,400 acres, administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System. The BLM already managed the land before the designation, which raised the level of protection given to its resources. The monument takes in a small part of the Sonoran Desert, which covers 120,000 square miles and extends well into California and Mexico. The North Maricopa Mountains, South Maricopa Mountains and Table Top Wildernesses lie within the monument and protect its richest areas of desert habitat from development.

Where it is

Sonoran Desert National Monument is a national monument near Goodyear, in Maricopa County. It is one of the national monuments in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Sonoran Desert National Monument, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
• Official site: https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/natmon/son_des.html(opens in a new tab)

Record last verified 2026-08-12.