Yesterday was our first of four days in Tucson. Our first impressions are all very positive. The city of just over a half a million is located in the Sonoran Desert surrounded by mountains. It's home to the University of Arizona and some of the largest Saguaro cactuses in the world. The city is spread out and pretty easy to navigate. Also, there seems to be plenty to keep us busy.
Our adventure for yesterday was the Saguaro National Park. This park is unique in that it is divided into two sections, one on each side of the city. We went to the "east side" which is known as the Rincon Mountain District. It is the largest of the two sections. It's more than 66,000 acres compared to 24,000 acres for the Tucson Mountain District. There was a really nice eight mile drive through the rolling hills that featured many different types of desert plants. The granddaddy of them all was the Saguaro Cactus. These guys can reach over 30 feet in height and live for around 200 years. Many of them have "arms" growing off the main truck while others remain a single main trunk. We learned that if they do grow arms those arms don't start growing until the cactus is "mature" which is around 100 years! In addition to the drive there was a nice picnic area and plenty of trails which made a nice afternoon in the desert.
https://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm
We're about six hours south and six to seven thousand feet lower than our Utah elevations. The temperatures have warmed up quite nicely. Yesterday it was in the high 60's and today it's going to get up into the 70's. We travel light (one carry on each and one backpack) which means we don't have a lot of variety, especially when we have to have some warm weather clothes. We've finally been able to put those away and break out the shorts and lighter shirts that we brought. Even though the cold weather and snow were great I missed my shorts! We are much more shorts type of folks than we are long pants and jackets. It's nice to be back in shorts. It was also nice to have washing machines and dryers along the way to keep the jeans and jackets clean!
Our adventure for yesterday was the Saguaro National Park. This park is unique in that it is divided into two sections, one on each side of the city. We went to the "east side" which is known as the Rincon Mountain District. It is the largest of the two sections. It's more than 66,000 acres compared to 24,000 acres for the Tucson Mountain District. There was a really nice eight mile drive through the rolling hills that featured many different types of desert plants. The granddaddy of them all was the Saguaro Cactus. These guys can reach over 30 feet in height and live for around 200 years. Many of them have "arms" growing off the main truck while others remain a single main trunk. We learned that if they do grow arms those arms don't start growing until the cactus is "mature" which is around 100 years! In addition to the drive there was a nice picnic area and plenty of trails which made a nice afternoon in the desert.
https://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm
We're about six hours south and six to seven thousand feet lower than our Utah elevations. The temperatures have warmed up quite nicely. Yesterday it was in the high 60's and today it's going to get up into the 70's. We travel light (one carry on each and one backpack) which means we don't have a lot of variety, especially when we have to have some warm weather clothes. We've finally been able to put those away and break out the shorts and lighter shirts that we brought. Even though the cold weather and snow were great I missed my shorts! We are much more shorts type of folks than we are long pants and jackets. It's nice to be back in shorts. It was also nice to have washing machines and dryers along the way to keep the jeans and jackets clean!
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| All the pictures today are from the Saguaro National Park |
