Walking the paths of the past at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Arizona. Visiting the ruins brought back many memories from when I was in elementary school. When we would have friends and family visits, we would bring them here to see and learn about Arizona’s history. The “Great House” was just as large as I remembered. It is fascinating to see how shelters were built and how different materials were used compared to today.
Location
The facilities are located ~40 miles south of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. If you are hiking the Juan Bautista De Anza Historic Trail then you will walk right by the Casa Grande Ruins.
Picnicking
There is a wonderful area for picnicking. Many ramadas providing shade over the picnic tables and BBQs. Multiple trash cans and dog trash stations keep the debris to a minimum. As you wait for your hotdog, read the many education signs strategically placed around the picnic area to learn the history of what was.
Casa Grande Ruins
The path that leads you from the visitor center to the “Great House” is simple to follow. It is relatively flat with a slight uphill increase. You pass many short walls that could have been different community supporting buildings. Read the education signs to learn more about art, structure building, plants, and cultural traditions.
Visitor Center
There is a visitor center, theater, exhibits, and bookstore. Check hours and park costs on the website.
Virtually Experience
Don’t worry if you are unable to travel right now. You can click here to virtually experience the Casa Grande Ruins.
Casa Grande Ruins National Park Stamp
The National Park Service manages this beautiful area. Do you collect stamps for your national park passport book? I am excited to start this collection.
This looks like a cool place to visit. I will have to check out the virtual tour!
Let me know what you like about the virtual tour.
I’d love to see this! We were planning on driving through Arizona, but due to the pandemic, we’ve decided to angle more north. I hope we can see Arizona soon!
Come when the weather is cooler. 🙂
That looks like an interesting place to visit with lots of learning opportunities. I definitely want to start a National Park Passport book for my kiddos (and myself)!
I like the passport book idea too.
What a great visit! I would really love to visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument!
In the meantime, you can visit it virtually.
Good thing there’s some shade there – looks like it might be a hot place for a picnic.
I would recommend visiting in the fall, winter, and spring. 🙂
Arizona is one place on my bucket list, but I haven’t visited yet. This park looks so intriguing to an East Coast-er like me. So different! And I love that it has a virtual component for right now.
Yes, the virtual component helps to share the history for those in other areas.
These ruins looks really cool. I was in Arizona back in March and as the National Parks closed we started looking at other places and came across some National Monuments and Historical Parks and things like that which were really cool. A lot of the time we were the only ones there. We didn’t make it to this one though.
we like it when there is less people at the locations. It helps to get a better feel of the place.
Interesting ruins to visit and explore. The environment makes it look like the weather is hot there.
Yes, we visited in the morning of June when it was only in the 90’s.
How fun! This looks like a great trip the family would enjoy.
Yes, a little bit of everything for everyone.
This looks fantastic. We visited Mesa Verde when we were traveling out went. This place would have been great to see.
Next time.
Looks like an amazing place to explore! I love historical sites.
I just learned Minnesota has a state park passport program so going to start that.
That is great!