Day 6 - Saguaro Natl’ Park

We went to the West Saguaro Natl’ Park this morning. We visited the eastern park on the other side of Tucson a couple of weeks ago. This park was on the same road as the Desert Museum we visited last year. On the right is the top of a Saguaro which has white needles. The lower part has black so I’m guessing that this may be new growth. But that’s just a guess.

We went on a couple of short hikes. This one was inundated with a school field trip. Not necessarily bad as there were several rangers and a number of parents with the kids.

I think this is a barrel cactus. A little bit of color in the dry area. Fortunately, the temperatures were pretty mild. Somewhere around 80°F by noon. We also went on a nature trail with a number of signs explaining the interaction between insects, mammals, and birds.

One of the walks was to Signal Hill which had a number of petroglyphs on the rocks. These weren’t part of a cliff or protected from the elements at all. There were steel railings suggesting that you stay on the trail and not venture into the area.

This is typical of the Signal Hill trail. Lots of steps. If it was flat, then there was sand. Bridget mentioned that the trails were either very short or pretty long. Not many in the middle.

If the railings weren’t enough to keep people from venturing off the trail, maybe the threat of rattlesnakes helped. The only reptiles I saw were a number of small, very fast lizards. And a number of birds.