Saguaro National Park - East

Saguaro National Park is divided into East and West units, today Sandy and John visited the East unit. It was a beautiful Saturday so the park was busy with people hiking, picnicking and riding on bicycles or horseback.

We drove the Cactus Forest Drive which is an eight mile loop road through the saguaro forest portion of the park. We stopped at the Mica View area and hiked a two mile loop on the Cactus Forest and Mica View trails, after our walk we ate our picnic lunch at the trail head.

A view of the Cactus Forest Drive.

 

The Saguaro is a tall cactus that assumes some odd shapes which at times could be called human (although John could not find the Shaqtus). According to the literature we picked up at the visitor center the saguaro grows very slowly reaching only 12 inches at age 15. At 50 years of age they may be as tall as seven feet and are generally over 75 years of age before they sprout branches or arms. This cactus may reach 25 feet by age 100 years and the oldest saguaros may reach 50 feet in height and weight 16,000 pounds after 150 years.

Sandy posing with two friends.

This one reminded John of a Sombrero.

 

Images from our hike.

The remains look like wood.

Helpful Hint; when you fall behind during a hike pretend you stopped to take a picture.

We got a lot of sun today but we had a nice hike and lunch. This afternoon we sat outside with KoKo and watched some of the racing from Daytona. It’s not to late so we may hit the pool and hot tub this evening.