Saguaro National Park - West

We visited the west unit of the park today to see the sights and hike a trail or two. The west unit is located in an area that is higher and hillier than the east unit so our hikes were more interesting with a lot of elevation change.

Our drive took us into the park and then onto a loop of three unpaved roads that took us up into a valley where we stopped for our first hike. Our first walk was the Valley View trail which was a one way walk of a half mile and it was like a nature trail as there were a number of signs identifying the plants found along the trail. As the name implies the trail takes you out to an overlook of the valley below, we spent a short time at the overlook before returning to the car and completing our loop.

Driving the loop road was rough at times.

 

The Valley View Trail had a variety of cactus and other plant life.

 

 

 

The valley overlook.

Our second trail was near the entrance where we drove into the park; this was a two and a half  mile loop up King Canyon and then back down an adjacent valley on the Gould Mine trail. On our way up the valley we didn’t take the trail but walked up the King Canyon Wash, in some ways the wash was easier to walk as the trail ascended and descended several hills along the wash; although we had a more gradual ascent there were several rock ledges to get over.

The King Canyon Wash had some difficult spots.

 

John picks his way up the wash.

 

Most of the wash was a gradual slope of sand and gravel.

 

Some of the wash wasn’t very gradual.

We walked up the valley to a picnic area where we stopped for a snack break, we then took another trail over the crest into the next valley where it intersected the Gould Mine Trail that we took back down to the trailhead.

 

We stopped at a picnic spot, the roof posts were concrete wrapped in Saguaro wood.

 

Over the crest into the next valley.

 

Looking down valley.

 

Gould’s Mine we presume.

 

This route also had a variety of cactus and other plants.

 

We had not been in this part of Tucson before so we decided to check out Justin’s Diamond J RV Park as we had read some good reviews. The park was located in the valley overlooked by Saguaro West and appears to be a possible stopping point in the future. After checking out Justin’s we stopped for an early supper before returning to Beaudry and the hot tub, unfortunately the NASCAR truck race was postponed by rain at Daytona so we may get to see it tomorrow as we will sit tight this weekend to hopefully watch the races.