In Tucson: hiking in Saguaro National Park, East

February 4, 2020

The end of the road

So is it time to end the tour then, I ask Rocky the other night as we walk back from dinner in Sierra Vista. Yup, she quickly agrees. No need to caucus or hold a secret ballot: it’s unanimous.

It wasn’t the bland, disappointing meal we’d just bolted down in a Mexican fast food joint, the only thing other than a Burger Kinh within walking distance we found open on Super Bowl Sunday. And it wasn’t the motel that tipped us over the edge - actually, we’re quite pleased with the one we’re staying at here on the edge of town, near the entrance gate to Fort Huachuca.

And, truth be told, it’s not the menacing weather - though that’s certainly a big consideration. After a week of fine riding conditions, we’re facing a couple of days ahead that scare us off the road: the temperature is due to drop nearly 25 degrees, with lows near 20, highs only in the low 40’s, and strong headwinds. Those sound like Arctic conditions to us, and we’re not outfitted for it. We’ve already cancelled reservations for the next few days, booked a room in Tucson, and rented a car. We’ll be driving back to Tucson today, where we’ll stay for the last week until we fly home.

No, mostly it’s just time. After almost five months on the road, we’re ready for a change of scene and a change of pace. Time to call it a tour.

Hiking in Saguaro National Park

So it’s also just about time to put the wrapper on this journal. I’m not sure what will happen with it over the coming week, but I imagine we’ll take a break on it as well. Don’t expect daily posts, but we’ll put something up when it feels newsworthy or memorable enough that we want to remember it for ourselves.

Today felt important enough to save off for the future though. We picked up the car this morning and drove back to Tucson, stopping on the way for an afternoon hike in Saguaro National Park. We had just biked through it ten days ago, but we were more than ready to see it again and at a different pace.

We took a seven mile hike on the northern edge of the park, through a network of footpaths well away from the paved circuit that brings in most visitors. It was awesome in the truest sense, walking through this vast saguaro forest, being amazed and delighted by everything we saw. If we lived here, this is a place we’d be drawn to again and again, I’m sure.

Saguaro National Park is a vast space. We’re just looking at one corner of it here, on the northern edge beneath Mount Lemmon. And this is just the eastern half of the park - there’s another section west of Tucson we haven’t even seen yet.

It’s a large, open space. It would be easy to get lost and disoriented out here, which could be really dangerous. Fortunately there are plenty of navigational assistants out here to steer you the right way.

It looks like a hot, sunny day out here in the desert under the blazing sun.

In Saguaro National Park. At this corner of the park, there’s even a running stream and a small dam.

A common sight: saguaros that have grown up under the shelter of a nurse tree.

And then there’s this grotesque figure (no, the one on the right, silly).

So strange. Like a giant cauliflower. Thanks to Bill’s comment, we learn that this is a rare ‘crested saguaro’, one of only about 25 found in this park. They have no certain scientific explanation, but theories include genetic mutations and injury by lightning strike. We’re lucky to have seen one.

There is much more out here than saguaros, of course. Prickly pears are everywhere.

And birds. This black-throated sparrow is feeding on what looks like the bud of a barrel cactus. I wonder how it got here, a few feet off the ground on a rock. Dropped by a raven? Blown up in a severe wind gust? Dropped there by a hiker?

As remarkable as the living saguaros are though, I found the dead and dying ones just as compelling.

Touching. This one is cradling its fallen neighbor in its arms.

I wonder how long this decaying process takes, and how long dead and dying saguaros can stand out here before eventually collapsing?

Arrival in Tucson

We get back to the car not long before sundown, and drive 20 miles west to downtown Tucson. We head straight for Reilly’s, a place we ate our first time here and really enjoyed. We park our car in a parking garage across the street, and then order exactly the same meal we enjoyed last time - I have orchiaetta pasta with fennel sausage, and Rachael has a prosciutto and arugula pizza. And, like last time, I enjoy the last two slices of Rachael’s pizza because it was unfortunately more than we could eat.

And then, for the next half hour, we attempt to get our car out of the parking garage so we can check in at our new Airbnb. It’s one of those garages where you pay for your parking by inserting your ticket into a payment kiosk, making your payment, and then scanning the validated ticket at the gate when you leave. Which we do, surprised and pleased that the fee is only $1. Another reason we like Tucson!

It’s a confusing and poorly marked garage layout though, and we have a hard time finding the exit. After circling around a bit, we finally come to a gate, surprised that it is on a upper level. Odd layout.

The scanned ticket doesn’t work. I try several variations of holding it up to the scanner and inserting it into a slot, but nothing works. Rachael gets out and walks around to my side to try it herself, with no more luck. Fortunately, there is a paging button to call for assistance. When we do so, the voice asks where we were, which garage, and by luck I remember the name of the street we were on so he can locate us. He tells us what to do, with instructions which make no sense to us - something about using two different cards in succession - the one we received when we entered the garage, and the one that we got back after making payment.

We have only one card. He gives up on us and says an assistant will be right over to help us. We wait.

And wait. Five or ten minutes later, still waiting, it occurs to us that maybe we should go down to the payment machine to see if there’s a second card there we neglected to pick up. Rachael heads off on this errand while I stay with the car waiting for an attendant to arrive. Soon after she leaves, it occurs to me that Rachael will get lost on occasion so I roll down the window, shout out to her to look around before she leaves,but it’s too late. She’s gone.

Ten minutes later, as I sit in the car seething as I listen to the state of the union address, it occurs to me that Rachael’s been gone too long. She’s lost. I leave the car, risking missing the attendant who’ll surely be along any minute, and start off to find her. It doesn’t take long - she’s one floor down, talking to the attendant. She had gotten herself lost alright, and was wandering around in a bit of a panic when she finally stumbled across the attendant who was trying to find us.

He couldn’t find us because we’re at the wrong gate. We’re trying to get into the long term parking section, not the exit which we couldn’t find for some reason. The validation card didn’t work because it’s the wrong gate. And, by now so much time has passed that the validated card wouldn’t have worked anyway. The attendant points to where the exit is, and when we gets there he manually opens the gate for us.

And, did I mention that we’re in the middle of a cold snap, it’s getting colder by the minute, and Rachael is near freezing after wandering around in the garage for twenty minutes? Fun times, a night to remember. Worth including in the blog for us to laugh about years from now.

We’re staying at a different Airbnb this time, because the one we’ll return to for the final three nights was unavailable. We’ll be here for four nights and then move on to the other one.

In our new Airbnb, huddled next to its tiny space heater, Rachael smiles as we reminisce over our fun times at the parking garage.

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Susan CarpenterI think your biggest garage mistake was listening to the SOTU.
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4 years ago

Bill ShaneyfeltSaguaro is a close second to the Grand Canyon in my favorite places, followed by the Superstitions.

You need to look for tiny cactus species! Even though little hedgehogs and tinier fish hook cacti are not blooming now, they are still neat!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinocereus

https://www.americansouthwest.net/arizona/saguaro/mammillaria-grahamii_l.html
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4 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Susan CarpenterI know, I know. Self-flagellation. I’m still punishing myself for throwing my broken helmet out into the desert.
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4 years ago

Jen RahnThe SOTU may have been excessive punishment for the helmet foible.

If you still feel guilty, make a donation to the desert museum or something. No need to torture yourself!
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4 years ago

Ron SuchanekI think you should seek guidance from the Wise Saguaro Sage, linked in a photo early in this post.
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4 years ago