Least Visited NPS Units: Casa Grande Ruins National Monument


Highlights of the West > Least Visited National Parks and Monuments

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
The Casa Grande, beneath its protective metal roofNext

The 20 featured locations are the national parks (or national historical parks) and national monuments in the Western USA which have the lowest annual visitation. Not included are several other types of NPS preserve, such as national historic sites. Of the 20, eight are from New Mexico, five from Arizona, two from Utah, and one each in California, Colorado, Idaho, Texas and Wyoming.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is a small place, occupying just one square mile of flat land in the desert of central Arizona, along a main road (AZ 87), though a little way off the two busiest routes in this part of the state, Hwy 79 and Interstate 10. Apart from desert plants in the gardens, and an informative museum in the visitor center, the sole attraction is an imposing Hohokam building dating from the 14th century, formed mostly of adobe, and protected from the harsh sun beneath a large metal canopy; all can be seen in less than an hour.

2014 Visitation: 63,698 (statistics available from the NPS)
Casa Grande Ruins - full description





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