Saguaro National Park guide · 1 min read
Saguaro Entry Fee, Time Zone and Navigation
One pass covers the whole park, and it is good for seven days at both the Tucson Mountain District and the Rincon Mountain District.
You pay only once even if you visit both sides.
Saguaro National Park has two districts with the city of Tucson lying between them. The Tucson Mountain District is to the west and the Rincon Mountain District is to the east. Getting from one district to the other takes somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, with the time varying by route and traffic, so build that into your schedule. Given a full day, a common plan is to spend the morning in one district, stop for lunch, then head to the other in the afternoon.
Typing a district name into a phone map app is discouraged. Instead, use the directions page on the park's website to pick the district you are headed to, then enter its physical street address into your navigation app. For the Tucson Mountain District, that address is 2700 North Kinney Road.
If you are driving in from farther away, Phoenix is about 115 miles and roughly an hour and three-quarters away, Sedona is about 230 miles or three and a half hours, and El Paso, Texas, is around 320 miles or four and a half hours. The saguaro cactus, which gives the park its name, is native only to the Sonoran Desert and can reach an age of up to 250 years. Arizona's state flower is the white bloom of this cactus, which opens between late May and July. Once inside, the Bajada Loop Drive offers a scenic route through the Tucson Mountain District.
