On 2/24 (day 14) we awoke to snow on the ground in the desert. The powerful winds the day before blew some horizontal snow overnight. But the wind was calm, and the sun was out. It was the coldest predicted high temperature of our trip so far - around 50ºF. However, months ago we booked two cave tours at Kartchner Caverns, where the temperature in the caves is 70ºF. Plan ahead, get ahead!
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A little snow in the desert
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The caverns are a fascinating story of two young college students finding it and doing the right thing by keeping it a secret for well over a decade until they could get the state of Arizona to declare it a park and develop it properly. It was a rare cave that had not been visited and looted by people. All the formations are intact. They were also lucky that the governor at the time was a geologist and understood the significance of an undisturbed cave. Here's a great story on how it all came to be - Kartchner Caverns HIstory. No photos are allowed in the cave, so you'll have to go visit yourself - but it's well worth the time to do so.
After the cave tours, we visited Saguaro National Park East. We drove the loop and took a few short hikes before we headed across Tucson to our campground near Saguaro National Park West. When you see the Saguaro from the road, you don't realize how tall they are. They can grow up to 50' tall and live for up to 200 years. The ones around Tucson don't even sprout arms until they are 75 years old.
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Saguaro at the eastern park. Bebop keeps an eye on the cactus.
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On 2/25 we toured the western park and the cactus were even bigger and more abundant. The eastern side had let cattle graze in the 60s, and they had trampled most of the younger cactus. The park had to purchase the grazing rights, and it's on the way to being restored. The western side was very beautiful. We took a number of hikes and even found some petroglyphs.
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Big Saguaro on the western side
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Bebop wanted a hug; Elena pretended she was Marge Simpson; Paul and Elena
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| Petroglyphs |
On 2/26 we visited Organ Pipe National Monument. It was sunny and 66ºF - just perfect desert weather. Organ pipe cactus are found in northern Mexico, but only a very small area of the US near the border. That's where we went today. We drove the 21-mile unpaved loop road and did a couple mile hike into a canyon. Elena noted that the Organ Pipe cactus looks like a love child of a Saguaro cactus and an Ocotillo plant. Saguaro cactus have only one main trunk, but the Organ Pipe cactus have many trunks that come out of the ground.
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Organ Pipe National Monument
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- Paul
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