Saguaro is one of our newer and lesser-known national parks. Located in two units on either side of Tucson, AZ, the park is just one of many beautiful natural areas in of the region's many mountains, deserts, and canyons. Saguaro NP was formed to protect the mighty Saguaro cactus, the iconic towering cactus with the distinctive upraised arms. (Though only older Saguaros have arms, and some never grow them.) They are such a symbol of the desert that many people don't realize they are relatively scarce. Saguaros only live in the Sonoran desert: southern Arizona, a similarly sized area across the border in Mexico, and a tiny part of bordering California. Not in New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, or anywhere else.
I apologize in advance that I accidentaly left my digital camera at home. I took these photos with a cheap disposable camera and it shows. They're blurry, too bright or dark, and all aimed too high. So it goes.
Tanque Verde Ridge Trail
The Tanque Verde Ridge is a tremendous hike. It is quite difficult, gaining lots of elevation and rambling over rocky ground. The trail is also very long and not always all that easy to follow. As you get farther away from the trailhead, watch for cairns to keep you on track, and watch for landmarks. This trail starts from the scenic drive in the Rincon Mountain (East) district. The photo above is from the start of the trail. There are Saguaros everywhere in the low elevations of the park! I had never seen one in person before and was in for a surprise. If you haven't seen one in person before, without looking it up, how tall do you think one is? My mental picture was that a tall Saguaro might be 10 feet tall. In reality, big ones are 25-30 feet and even taller. Just massive, towering plants. Being surrounded by them is very, very cool. This, on the other hand, is a smaller but still neat-looking Cholla cactus:
The trail passes these four Saguaros on a hilltop on the way up to the ridge. They look like they're having an animated discussion or performing a play:
They say that Saguaros can't grow an arm until they're already 50-70 years old. Some grow one, some eventually grow several, and some, like one in the above photo, never grow one. Below, a Saguaro with one huge arm and a new one growing:
Tanque Verde Ridge Trail ascends quickly. Here I'm looking down into the flat area east of the park:
Is that cactus flipping me off? Same to you, pal! Here's a nice view down into Tucson itself:
Looking along the ridge:
Though the elevation gain makes it a tough hike, it makes for a very interesting one. Besides the great views, the constant climbing takes you through several different ecosystems. Once high enough, Saguaros don't grow, and you get more grass and small trees. The trail ascends higher and higher, winding past or over the ridge's hilltops. Here's a neat looking dead tree, and behind it you can see the plant life is quite different:
Further along the hike, you enter Juniper Basin, which is very green. Turning around in Juniper Basin gives you a hike of about 14 miles. Tough as it is, it's much easier going back since it's downhill! Just be sure you don't rush so much that you miss the trail. Because this one is not always crystal clear, keep an eye on the landmarks behind you as you climb.
Below is the towering, century-old saguaro next to the Rincon Mountain district's visitor center. It's about 35 feet tall:
Cactus Forest Trail
After my long, difficult hike on Tanque Verde Ridge, I had somehow managed to crink my knee. It hurt the next day, so I took it relatively easy and hiked 3-4 flat miles through the cactus forest. This is a pleasant flat trail by countless saguaros and other cool desert life. A side trail leads to the ruins of some old lime kilns. The Cactus Forest is a perfect introduction to everything that lives in Saguaro NP along a trail that is quite easy. In the photo below are a few young saguaros growing under a tree. They're maybe 4-5 feet tall. Apparently, a tree like this can shelter young cactuses and provide a better environment for them to grow. As the saguaros grow larger, they thank the "nurse tree" by soaking up its water and killing it.
Cacti, clouds, and the ridge from the Cactus Forest:
I also hiked two short loops in the Rincon Mountain district - the quarter mile Desert Ecology Trail, which is paved and gives you info on the plants of the region, and the one mile Freeman Homestead loop, which takes you by the foundation of an old house and plenty of saguaros.
Kings Canyon Trail
On my last day in Saguaro NP, I decided to tackle the premiere hike in the Tucson Mountain (West) district: Kings Canyon Trail, a hike beginning in the eponymous canyon and ascending all the way to Wasson Peak, the highest point in the Tucson Mountains at 4687 feet. (Not to be confused with Kings Canyon National Park, which is in California nowhere near this one.) The drive to the west disctrict of the park from Tucson is stunning as you drive over Gates Pass, a lovely mountain road. The parking area was not immediately obvious, but thanks to my map I found it. The parking area seems to be just outside the boundaries of the national park, so if you drive from Tucson into the national park boundary, you've missed this trailhead. The trail ascends to Wasson Peak over 3.5 miles, making the roundtrip about an even 7 miles. The trail begins by following above a wide wash, gently undulating up and down. After a mile or so, it drops into the wash, then climbs right back out on the right side. However, I missed the trail to the right and continued walking up the wide, gravelly wash. It was easy walking, but after a few minutes, I was no longer sure I was on the trail. I reasoned that I could follow the wash as long as I wanted with no danger of getting lost. After about a half mile, however, the wash ended at the blank wall of a dryfall. This definitely had not been the right way. I turned back and immediately ran into another person who had missed the trail. Ashley, a Tucsonite (Tucsonian?), was also hiking Kings Canyon for the first time. Both a little puzzled, we retraced our steps and soon found the trail, which actually is marked pretty clearly. I guess the wash just looked too inviting. Since we were both hiking alone and going to the same place, we decided to tackle the rest of the hike together. Once out of the wash, the trail begins its long ascent to Wasson Peak. It is not a terribly steep hike, but is a steady ascent. Here I am on the way up:
What's that whitish glow in the lower left of the picture? It's what happens when you use a terrible, cheap disposable camera. Or maybe it's a ghost. And yes, I'm wearing the Reds shirt again. It's old and holey, so perfect for hiking in places where the plants have spines. The trail continues to ascend in this much nicer picture (which looks back down the trail):
Reaching higher ground, we passed by some old abandoned mine shafts. They're fenced off (don't EVER go in an old mine shaft - they could be unstable or full of poisonous gas), but neat to look into. The trail becomes more rugged and scenic here as it passes just under the peaks and winds past rocky outcroppings.
The view above is looking ahead to the peak, which is on the right. The trail curves left from here, then across the ridge visible straight ahead. Be sure to follow the signs, because there are some forks here.
Here's a fantastic view from near the top of this hike:
Wow! ...On a side note, I think this was also from my disposable camera that I've been complaining about. Why did this one, and this one alone, look pretty decent? Looking down into the city from near Wasson Peak:
Here I am on top of Wasson Peak. Why does it look like someone from the Enterprise is beaming down next to me? Again, lousy camera. (Or ghosts.)
A much better picture, this time of Ashley on the peak. What a shot! You can see the trail end right here on the peak. Look at that sun!
Note also that you can see the trail we'd come up down below. (Under her right hand.) Wasson Peak is a wonderfully peaceful spot to sit and relax. The day we were there the calm was broken up by planes from the nearby Air Force base flying over. We retraced our steps back down towards the trailhead, but decided to walk down Kings Canyon Wash, which runs parallel to the trail for the last (i.e. closest to the trailhead) mile. I had been planning to do this just to hike back a different way, but Ashley had heard there were petroglyphs in the wash. I'm glad I had a buddy to point this stuff out because I hadn't known that and might have missed them! Here's a petroglyph from Kings Canyon Wash that might be people in a subway car or a Newton's cradle:
Jokes aside, I LOVE seeing this kind of thing. Someone, hundreds of years ago, took the time to put this image on this rock. What does it mean? Who did they write it for? Looking at these images always gives me a powerful impression of being a stranger in someone else's home. I usually feel that way on hikes - like I'm a guest in the home of the animals and plants - but the connection is different with petroglyphs. A person wrote these. Though I can't know what they mean, there's such a mysterious connection here, crossing centuries from the writer to the reader. Here are some more. In the lower left, a person; in the upper right, some shapes that look like snakes:
Unlike, say, the famous "Newspaper Rock", a petroglyph-covered slab in Petrified Forest National Park which you can't get within 50 feet of, these are unmarked, out in the open, right on the trail. You can walk right up to them. (Just please don't touch them!) And there are many more in the wash. They don't seem to be that well known (even the venerable Oswald guide doesn't mention these particular ones), but this is a great place to view petroglyphs. This is a really great hike, a really neat experience with amazing views, especially up near the top! If you've got the stamina for it, do it! And don't forget, whether on the way up or down, to head through Kings Canyon Wash and check out the petroglyphs.