On Friday we went to Sears to do some shopping. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were rainy off and on, so we walked the 1.3 mi exercise loop each morning. Rupert, Helen and Keri arrived on the weekend. While they were in Texas stopped in by a flagperson in a construction zone, someone lost control of their truck and ran it down the side of their trailer and truck. They spent a while there sorting out insurance and getting the important damage repaired.
On Monday, weather still a bit damp, we all went Saguaro National Park (East Section). The park contains "the most diverse cactus garden in the USA". The park refers to it as the Cactus Forest. After going through the Visitor Center and we watched a short film on the history of the area and the park. It described the Hohokam Indians (200 to 1400 AD), the O'odham Indians (present day), Mexican ranchers who arrived before the
Gadsden Purchase in 1853, which added the section south of the Gila River to Arizona. After the purchase, people from the eastern USA started to ranch in the area.
A national monument was created in 1933 to preserve the saguaro forest from ranching activity. In February 1937, a cold front brought record low temperatures, killing many saguaros. In 1962, during another cold spell, researchers determined that more than 20 hours of freezing temperatures could kill the plants. By 1980, almost no young saguaros had survived. In 1979, the National Park Service acquired the grazing rights, so the cattle could no longer trample the young saguaros, and renewal of the 'cactus forest' started.
We drove the 8 mile one-way scenic loop, stopping at each interpretive point.
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| Across the park to the Santa Catalina Range |
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| Saguaro |
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| Gila Woodpecker |
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| Javelina Rocks |
In the evening, we had a short rainstorm.
There are 34 miles of hiking trails in the north end of Saguaro NP and an 11.5 mile trail at the south end. We were provided with a hiking map map that covered both areas, with several loop hikes highlighted. On Tuesday, Joan and I went to the trail-head on the north end of Saguaro and hiked a loop of about 3.5 miles. We saw a hare scamper under a bush to try and hide, about the same time as another couple arrived from the other direction. We saw quite a few birds along the way. It was nice and quiet, so we could pick out the different sounds. We looked at the small tailings piles at the Loma Verde mine site. A lot of the trails were cut deep due to horses. This area of the desert has the same plants we see many places, but being in a corner of the Santa Catalina Mountains and Mount Rincon, it is more like a forest than desert.
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| Large cholla cactus |
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| CactusWren |
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| Fishhook Barrel Cactus |
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| Deep trail cut out by horses |
Wednesday, we went to northeast corner of Saguaro, to Desert Springs Trailhead on Speedway Ave. Our destination was Bridal Wreath Falls, hoping it would have some water after the rainy weekend. This is a 2.9 mi trip each way into the hills.
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| Heading into the hills |
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| Looking back over the park once we got up above it |
We got about halfway to falls, and had climbed up about 600 ft through the foothills of Mt Rincon on a trail with large rocks steps that weren't knee friendly.
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| Steep climb |
At that point we encountered a fellow returning. He had been to Bridal Wreath, and there wasn't a drop of water in it. We asked if it was still worth the trip, and whether it looked better than a dry run below us. No, it didn't even look that good.
At that point we decided, rather than returning, to cut south west on Carillo Trail, still climbing, but not as steeply, to a steel tank on Three Tank Trail.
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| Water tank from ranching |
Once we go to the tank, we cut across on Three Tank Trail to Wild Horse Trail, then Garwood trail back to the trail-head. The trip was about 5.4 mi, and took us almost 4 hours. We stopped to chat with a variety of people on the way, and had lunch on Carillo trail, so didn't make very good time.
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