About 100,000 sq mi (US and Mexico) · AZ, CA · Phoenix and Tucson · saguaro cactus
Sonoran Desert map
The Sonoran Desert covers southwestern Arizona and the southeastern corner of California and continues into the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. It is the hottest desert in North America and the only one where the saguaro grows.
Where the Sonoran is
The Sonoran Desert covers the southwestern third of Arizona, from the Mogollon Rim and the Phoenix basin south to the Mexican border and west to the Colorado River. Across the river it takes in the southeastern corner of California: the Colorado Desert, the Imperial and Coachella valleys, and the country around the Salton Sea. About two-thirds of the whole desert is in Mexico, in Sonora and Baja California, and it reaches the Gulf of California on both shores. It is a low desert, mostly under 3,000 ft, which is why it is hotter than the Mojave to the north and the Chihuahuan to the east.
Key measurements
- Area: about 100,000 square miles in all; roughly a third in the US.
- Lowest point: the Salton Sea, about 227 ft below sea level; much of the Imperial Valley is below sea level.
- Rain: 3 to 12 inches a year, falling in two seasons, winter Pacific storms and the July–September monsoon; the double rain supports more plant life than any other desert.
- Saguaro cactus: grows only here, up to about 40 ft tall and 150 to 200 years old; protected in Saguaro National Park on both sides of Tucson.
- Rivers: the Gila, Salt and Verde in Arizona, all dammed to supply Phoenix; the lower Colorado, which the All-American Canal diverts to irrigate the Imperial Valley.
Cities in the desert
Phoenix (2020 population 1,608,139) and its suburbs Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale and Tempe form the largest desert metropolis in the country, on the Salt River plain. Tucson, 110 miles southeast, is the second city. Yuma sits at the Colorado–Gila confluence on the California line. In California, Palm Springs and Indio are in the Coachella Valley, and El Centro and Calexico in the Imperial Valley opposite Mexicali. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so from March to November Phoenix keeps the same clock as Los Angeles and San Diego.
Parks and protected land
Saguaro National Park (1994), Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the border, Sonoran Desert National Monument south of Phoenix, and the Cabeza Prieta and Kofa wildlife refuges cover large areas. Joshua Tree National Park's southern half lies in the Colorado Desert section, and Anza-Borrego, California's largest state park, sits between it and San Diego. The Tohono O'odham Nation covers about 4,400 square miles of desert west of Tucson.
How the desert shaped the map
The southern Arizona part of the desert entered the US in the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, bought from Mexico for a southern railroad route; without it Tucson would be Mexican and the border would run north of the Gila. The Arizona–California line is the Colorado River through the desert's middle. Irrigation from the Colorado turned the Imperial Valley into farmland after 1901, and a canal failure in 1905 created the Salton Sea. The Central Arizona Project, completed in 1993, carries Colorado water 336 miles to Phoenix and Tucson.
Related maps
- US deserts — the four deserts compared.
- Mojave Desert · Colorado River · Grand Canyon.
- Arizona map · Phoenix · All geography maps.