Someone has called National Parks and Monuments “The Crown Jewels of America.” A part of their beauty and irreplaceable value is because the approximately 180 units of the National Park System which extends from Florida to Alaska and from Hawaii to Maine, are and have been wildflower sanctuaries. Not only do native plants live under natural conditions, but they are protected from picking, from grazing of domestic livestock, and from the competition of exotic species, and from other activities of mankind that would disrupt their normal habitat or disturb their native way of life.

Men in the uniform of the National Park Service feel complimented whenever visitors show an interest in the natural features of the areas they protect, and are happy to assist them in locating rare species or especially beautiful or spectacular specimens. Range and grazing specialists are more and more using the natural vegetation of National Parks and Monuments as “check plots” to aid them in studying ways and means of preserving the level of grazing value on the open ranges.

Within the desert areas of the Southwest there are a number of National Parks and Monuments. Three Monuments (Joshua Tree in California, Organ Pipe Cactus and Saguaro in Arizona) have been created primarily to save from exploitation and destruction outstanding areas of typical desert vegetation. Although the others have been established to protect and preserve geologic, historic, or archeologic values of national significance, they are all wildflower sanctuaries. In California, Death Valley National Monument is outstanding in its variety of desert flowers. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, of which Hoover Dam is the center, has exceptional displays of various forms of desert plants. A great variety of desert vegetation will be shown and, if desired, explained to the interested visitor, by National Park Service rangers at Chiricahua, Tonto, Montezuma Castle, Casa Grande, and Tumacacori National Monuments in Arizona. Of course the really great displays of desert botany and ecology are featured at Organ Pipe Cactus and Saguaro National Monuments.

In New Mexico, Chihuahuan Desert vegetation is particularly abundant at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. A number of desert forms, especially interesting because of the effect upon them of the ever-moving gypsum dunes, are found at White Sands National Monument, near Alamogordo. Another outstanding Chihuahuan Desert wildflower sanctuary is Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas.

Photography is encouraged in all of the National Parks and Monuments. By asking a ranger, you will be able to learn where the various flower displays may be found, the best time of day to obtain good results, and other suggestions helpful in obtaining photographs of desert wildflowers at their very best.

Each year the following magazine and radio program present bulletins on moisture and other pertinent conditions in the desert, spotlight areas in which outstanding wildflower displays are developing, and advance suggestions relative to areas in which spectacular displays may be expected.

Desert Magazine, Randall Henderson, Editor, Palm Desert, California.

Richfield Reporter, western radio stations.