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Arizona’s Chiricahua, previously a monument, is known for its rock spires.

Scenic rocks at Chiricahua in Arizona. (Dukas/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

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In southeastern Arizona, hundreds of rock spires rise out of a landscape where desert, grassland and forest ecosystems meet.

Meet the United States’ newest national park: Chiricahua.

The sacred Apache site, also called the “Wonderland of Rocks,” became the 64th national park late Tuesday when President Trump signed the Chiricahua National Park Act. The law had easily passed in the House by voice vote in March and was agreed by unanimous consent in the Senate last month.

Chiricahua — pronounced “cheery-cow-uh” — is the first national park declared in the U.S. in six years. Before it, the most recently declared national park was New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia, signed into law by Trump in 2020.

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