Saguaro National Park May 13

 

We really are covering lots of territory!

This morning we have the Best Western included breakfast.  A little change from the norm is that we could eat outside by the pool if we so chose.  Pack up and on the road.

There is an East and a West Saguaro National Park with Tucson between them.  The East portion is a bit higher elevation and gets a bit more rainfall.  The higher elevations have a mixture of deciduous and conifers.  We chose to go to the Western park (partially because that is the way we will be traveling when we head on to our next national Park – Joshua tree.  But Waze got a bit confused and set us off towards the Visitor’s Center in the East portion.  Once we realized our mistake and turned around, we had just added an hour to our days drive.  Oh shoot, we don’t gain an hour today either.  Kinda liked those 25 hour days. 

 

We’re just in time for a ranger lecture at the Visitor’s Center on the life cycle of the saguaro.  They are extremely slow growing.  It takes 10 years for it to get to a foot tall.  They’re about our age when they are tall enough to start flowering and branching out.  Live to be about 150-175.  The ones in the Eastern portion live to be about 200.  The fruit that is produced in the Eastern saguros have about 1000 more seeds in them than the Western saguaro.  I guess that’s what more rain gets ya.  The accordion type pleats make it so the saguaro can expand and store water. 

We get recommendations on where to go with our limited time.  A picnic area with a shelter that frames pictures nicely.  Generally pretty deserted so can have some peace and quiet.  Then a different picnic area where we can walk a short distance and see petroglyphs.  If we had more time, we would have done the 2 ½ mile loop to see more petroglyphs.  Gotta save something for next time…..

Hmm, people eating lunch in the shelter with the good picture opportunities.  I go up and snap a few pictures anyway.   It is really fresh and pleasant in the shelter.  Amazing how much difference shade and a breeze make!

Drive on to the next stop.  Down and back up again to the top of a small hill.  Sure enough, there they are.  There is evidence of human occupation back to 10,000-8,000 BCE.  But the carvings were done by the Hohoakum people (meaning “ the people who have gone”) around 200 CE. 

It would be nice to stay longer but we have a long drive ahead to get to our next National Park – Joshua Tree in California. 

The drive is uneventful.  Amazing how flat the areas are that we’re driving through.  Yet there seems to always be presence of rugged mountains.  Sometimes in the distance and sometimes closer.   I think we’re driving through an ancient ocean bed.  We stop at a rest stop in the middle of nothing.  There is a sign warning to not walk your pets in that area as there are poisonous insects and snakes.   YIKES! I’m getting back in the car. 

We stop for lunch in Phoenix.  It’s tempting to break our “no chain on vacation” rule as all we see near the interstate exit are chains and we have so many more miles to go.  But, we look on Yelp and find a Vietnamese restaurant that is highly rated and quite close.  Parking lot is full at 3:00 on a Saturday!  The pho was good and a little lighter that we’ve been eating so that was nice. 

Sunset tonight will be on the road…..

Got into our motel about 9PM.