National park National Park in 1914. The UK waited until 1951 for the designation of its first national park, The Peak District National Park which sits at the southern end of the Pennine Hills surrounded by industrial cities. This followed perhaps 70 years of pressure for greater public access to the landscape. By the end of the decade a further 9 national parks had been designated. Europe has some 359 national parks as of 2010. Africa's first national park was established in 1925 when Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now Democratic Republic of Congo centred on the
Saguaro National Park and eroded to form the Santa Catalina and Rincon mountains visible today. Although the volcanic rocks seen on the surface of the Tucson Mountain District are not found in the Rincon Mountain District, the crystallized granite (Catalina gneiss) from beneath the Tucson Mountains was eventually exposed on the Rincon Mountain District's surface. The most common rock type in the Rincon Mountains, this banded gneiss is visible in the Rincon Mountain District at sites such as Javelina Rocks along the Cactus Forest Loop Drive. The earliest known residents of the land in and around what later became Saguaro National Park were