Wilderness Wandering

We arrived at Saguaro NP from Chiricahua National Monument.  It was only a 90 minute drive between the two parks. 

Saguaro has 2 parts, an East and a West. The two parks are separated by the city of Tucson. Each unit has a scenic drive and a visitor’s center. 

The saguaro ( pronounced sah-WAH-row) cactus is an icon of the southwest.  The park consists of 91,000 acres and was established to protect the saguaro forests surrounding the Rincon Mountains. The saguaro is an amazing plant. A 5 to 10 year old saguaro is generally only about an inch tall. 15’ to 30’ trees are 130 to 150 years old. They generally begin to grow arms between 40 and 50 years old. The trees on the east side of the park grow faster because they receive more rain. Saguaro roots fan out as tall as the tree in order to soak up water. Over its lifetime a single saguaro produces 40 million seeds and odds are only 1 will take root! The saguaro is built on a wooden framework sturdy enough to support its weight, which can exceed 16,000 pounds. Inside is a spongy flesh capable of absorbing large amounts of water. A waxy coating covers its skin to slow evaporation. Thorny spines protrude to deter animals and provide shade. The needles also perform photosynthesis for the plant. 

We started on the west side as our RV Park for the night was a mere 4 miles from Saguaro west. There are no campgrounds inside either side of the park. 

We hiked the King Canyon /Gould Mine Loop – 2.4 miles. It was hilly and had a pretty view of saguaros and mountains. Tucson had recently had a week of rain and Tim and I were astonished at how lush and green the desert was!! We heard some beautiful bird songs. We particularly enjoyed the song of The Curved Bill Thrasher!

After our hike we checked out the highly recommended  Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It wasn’t what I expected of a museum. It was more like a desert zoo with really well done habitats. We enjoyed seeing all the kinds of reptile life safely behind glass! We saw javelinas, a mountain lion, coyotes, and mule deer. 

They had a hummingbird area and a separate open air aviary of other birds one could roam through. There was a fantastic cactus garden as well. 

We checked into our RV Park. I had reserved the Flying Jewels site, which was swarming with beautiful hummingbirds! I could have sat all evening watching them. 

Since we were in the middle of a National Park for Valentine’s Day, Tim took me out for dinner tonight. I selected a vegetarian restaurant called Turmerico, which specializes in all kinds of Latin food. We found the restaurant, parked and went in. Tim was underwhelmed to find that the menu was in chalk on the wall, you order and pay at the register and they bring you the food. Well, other than the very casual ambiance, Turmerico was fabulous! We learned that a few weeks prior, it  was named by Yelp as the top restaurant in the U.S.!! How lucky were we?

While driving around downtown, we discovered Tucson has lots of beautiful murals. Next time, we have to do the mural walk. 

On the way back to the camp site, we were treated to a spectacular desert sunset! What a day!

The  next day, we awoke to a bright sunny day with an expected high of 70. We arrived at the east unit of Saguaro National Park and went into the VC to learn about the hiking opportunities and the scenic drive. We watched an excellent movie about the scientific efforts to preserve the saguaro. 

We drove the 8 mile Cactus Forest Drive and made frequent stops along the way. The drive is well used by locals for walking and cycling.  We walked the .25 mile Desert Ecology Self Guided Trail and the 1 mile Freeman Homestead Trail. Along the Freeman Homestead Trail were informational boards illustrated with artwork of saguaros from local school children. It brought back childhood memories of mine. I remember that I always drew saguaros as tall cactus having two arms and always having a hole in the middle. Many of the illustrations along the trail were very similar to mine. Many of the real saguaros did have holes in them created by birds. Some had a lot of holes. They are the apartment buildings of the desert. 

After a good morning at the park, we headed to north Tucson to visit our friends Wendy and Tom, who hosted us for the evening. 

We liked Tucson very much! I can definitely see another winter trip to Tucson in our future. 

Next we traveled to Phoenix where we spent time with several sets of friends and had lunch with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanie. While in the Phoenix area, our friend Dennis and his hiking buddy Claudette treated us to a great hike. We hiked the Hog Canyon trail. It was 6.5 miles. Thank goodness we had guides or we would have been there a while! The trail was difficult to follow through the desert. We did a lot of rock scrambling and were treated to an unusual pool at the summit! We also saw mountain lion tracks!

We are off to California next!