SHUCK TOAK VISITOR CENTER

Since 2009, we operate the Shuck Toak Visitor Center in the reserve. The center gets its name from the indigenous O’odham language and means “Sacred Mountain”, and it aims to strengthen desert conservation culture through environmental education programs.

SHUCK TOAK VISITOR CENTER

The Sonoran desert is one of the four most important deserts in North America, given its size and biodiversity.  It also has the largest number of protected natural areas in the world, including El Pinacate Biosphere Reserve and the Great Altar Desert, which were declared as Natural Heritage for Humanity in 2014.

Shuck Toak Visitors Center was designed using a series of eco-technologies and alternative energy. The Center has both permanent and temporary exhibition areas, an audiovisual room, library and cafeteria, as well as a lookout area and an observatory. Outside the center, there are interpretive trails for observing and identifying local flora and fauna, as well as the geological interpretation of lava flows.