Saguaro National Park

This weekend we headed down to Tucson to see Saguaro National Park. It lived up to everything that I had hoped it would. There are two parts to the park, the east and the west side, each bordering the city of Tucson. We went to the east side, all of the information said that the west side has Saguaro cacti, but that it also has all sorts of other vegetation.

The east side had huge Saguaro cactus that grew up right to the side of the road. There were pictures of what the area looked like 60 and 80 years ago, there were 3 times as many cacti there then, but there have been a couple of times that frost has come to Tucson and the frost kills the cactus.

The Saguaro takes 75 years of growth before it begins to grow an arm, so there were worries a few decades ago that the Saguaro would become extinct, but it seems that there is a large number of new cacti growing under "nurse" trees, (Mesquite trees) and because they are protected by the trees they are starting to get larger.



The ravine below this picture is home to lots of animals, including baby turtles. The park ranger we talked to said they only really see them during the monsoon season when the valley below us is raging with water.

I don't know if you can see the rows and rows of Saguaro's behind the main ones at the front of the picture.



There is a picture similar to this one in the Chandler Mall. The difference is that the ground is covered in pink, yellow and blue blossoms. I have been told that the desert blooms in the Spring, right before and during the monsoon season. We're going to have to go back then so I can take the same pic with all of the blooms.

Form here we went to Tombstone, but that will have to be a different post on a different day. :)