-A hot desert that covers 100,000 square miles (260,000 square kilometers) of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico
-Includes most of the southern half of Arizona, southeastern California, and most of the states of Sonora and Baja California, Mexico
-Known for its cactus forests, rugged mountains, native petroglyphs, and captivating creatures
-Annual rainfall: 3 - 20 inches depending on location ... average around Tucson is about 10 inches/year
-The Sonoran Desert National Monument is south of Goodyear and Buckeye and east of Gila Bend, Arizona ... created by Presidential proclamation on January 17, 2001, the 496,400 acres monument is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System