El Pinacate, Mexico

Join us on a adventure to ‘El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve’ - a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the black volcanic heart of the Sonoran Desert.

This cross-cultural Expedition offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore an iconic and beautiful area of the Desert Southwest that you won’t soon forget, and any ecologist, geologist, or anthropologist would be excited for this unique chance to experience a harsh but beautiful landscape,and flora, and fauna, found nowhere else on Earth.

Known as ‘El Pinacate’ for short, this federally protected area is a relatively undisturbed, ecologically, and culturally rich environment located just thirty miles South of the US-Mexico Border, in the northernmost state of Sonora, Mexico.

The joint protection of El Pinacate Biosphere and the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta - an adjoining marine and terrestrial reserve, occurred in 1993, thanks to the support of diverse stakeholders, including in the Mexican government, Tohono O’odham Nation, and in the Tucson community.

We are very lucky to be able to visit this area with the special permission of CONANP - the federal agency in Mexico that manages the Reserve in coordination with its many partners.

El Pinacate is rich in biodiversity and showcases a wide variety of geological and volcanic features; it is one of the few places in North America where one can see cinder cones, craters, inselbergs, and lava flows all in one place, as well as North America’s largest sea of sand - the southern Algodones dune complex, or Gran Desierto de Altar, which translates to the ‘Great Desert Shrine.”

Some of the craters, with specified permission from CONANP, include, MacDougal, Trebol, Sykes, El Elegante, and Cerro Colorado - each unique in its depth, diameter, shape, and habitat. It is truly difficult to decide which crater is more beautiful and moving, and each has a different view and hosts unique communities of plant and animal life.

Our route South takes us through some of the most spectacular desert of southwestern Arizona, with views of Kitt Peak, Baboquivari Peak, and Organ Pipe National Monument. 

For more detailed information - read our blog on our El Pinacate tour