Saguaro Nat'l Park East & Free Pie

Grant came out here with a bucket list of things he wanted to see or do and Saguaro Nat'l Park East was high on the list.  We picked today to venture out to the park and made the short 7 mile drive there and took the 8 mile drive through the park.  We've been there a number of times, but this was a first for Grant and he seemed to enjoy the sights a lot.

The information center has a small garden with different cacti labeled so us non Southwest people can get to know the names of the different cacti.  I do know that the Saguaro cactus shown below is over 100 years old since it has arms and they are fairly large.  The Saguaro cactus doesn't grow arms until it is 75 years old at least.

 Right after we entered the park (free because of my Golden Age Pass) we spotted a nice prickly pear cactus with the beginning of flowers.  I had to pull over in order to not block the one lane road and some old geezer couldn't wait and zoomed by me and ran off the road and hit the side of the cactus.  You can see his tire tracks near Grant's foot.  I don't understand how anyone can speed through a park at 40mph plus and actually see anything.

 The Saguaro cactus buds are forming now and should be in bloom within a week or so.  They bloom at night and if the mornings are cool, the blooms will be visible for a few hours in sunlight.

 The hedgehog cacti have a number of blooms on them and come in multiple colors.  They are favorites of ours since they bloom early and last a long time.

 More prickly pear cactus with beautiful blooms.  Grant is lucky to be here at this time since the cacti are starting to bloom and there will be fields of these along side of the road.  They are beautiful to see, but terrible to walk in.

 The Ocotillo are in full bloom now and are throughout the park.  It is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago they looked like dead sticks and were brown. 

The Village Inn restaurant gives away free pie on Wednesday and we stopped in for a late lunch.  The lunches were large and good and we managed to fill our stomachs to overflowing almost.   We asked for the pies to go and picked two cherry pies (Gerry & I) and Grant had a German Chocolate Cake Pie.  It must have been good since he wolfed it down later in the evening.  We also enjoyed our cherry pies with ice cream as a late night snack.

Oh, before all this we went to the library so I could download the latest version of Windows 8.1.  My new computer came with 8.1, but this new download was around 4gig and I didn't want to use up all my 20gig bandwidth on the download.  Even with the super fast internet at the library it still took 30+ minutes to download the files and another 45 minutes to fully install the new version of 8.1.  The best thing about it for me is that it boots right into the desktop rather than into the tile format of Win 8.1.  There are a number of other features but I haven't had time to try them all out.

That was our day out here in the desert, how was yours? 

Saguaro National Park

One of our favorite places to visit in the Tucson area is Saguaro Nat'l Park East.  There is an 8 mile drive through the desert and the beautiful saguaro cacti.  Since we've had a little rain lately, we thought we'd check out the park today and see if there were many flowers.  Evidently there hasn't been enough rain since the flowers were fewer than in past years, however those that were there were beautiful.  

Buds on top of Saguaro Cactus

Gambrils Quail

Ocotillo flower

Crown Saguaro Cactus

Wild deer in park

Pretty setting for flower

 We also saw a number of different birds, large and small rabbits, chipmunks and other wildlife, including some on bicycles flying down the road.


The temperature has started rising and it was in the low 90s today.  They are calling for triple digits on Sunday and high 90s after that.  It is time to get out of Dodge.   We hope to be on the road by April 29 and heading east.  We'll see how that goes.

Saguaro East Nat'l Park & Breakfast

For some reason Gerry and I woke up before 730 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  Terrible!  We decided to go out for breakfast at a local restaurant which will remain unnamed.  We got there early enough to get seated right away and the coffee was poured very quickly.  Good sign.  We ordered the special and I shared it with Gerry getting the pancakes and I got the rest, including some sausage.  I think the sausage might not have been cooked properly or the grease was old and it did a number on my stomach.  I won't go into detail for your benefit.

I had plans to go shooting with Al & Sharon around noon and was waiting to see how my stomach would react.  Not good, so I cancelled on the shooting and we will schedule it again real soon.  I always enjoy shooting and hope we can go in the near future.

We hung around the motorhome and finally about 3pm got cabin (motorhome) fever and had to get out.  The Saguaro East Nat'l Park is very near to us and we always enjoy the 9 mile ride through the park.  At various times of the year there are different cacti blooming, but today there weren't any in bloom.  It was still an enjoyable ride and very relaxing to us.  

We were very surprised to see the number of cacti that had died since last spring.  There was a very long cold snap in January 2011 and evidentially a number of the cacti couldn't handle it.  We counted well over 50 dead ones, including a really neat one we had taken a picture of in the fall of 2006.  Here is what it looked like then and up to last spring.

Here is what it looks like in January of 2012.  It was a sad scene and it feels like we lost something really special.  The cactus was well over 120 years old and held a special place for us.  Sad!

 
We chatted with the ranger on duty on the way out about the number of cactus that had died the past year and they were suprised there were so many.  The previous thinking was that the long hot summer was the cause of so many dying, but evidently that is not the case.

We took our usual number of photos in the park and some are shown below.  The park was used to graze cattle a number of years ago and the cattle ate the young saguaros before they could get large enough to protect themselves.  Since it has become a park and the cattle have been banned, the growth of new saguaros has increasing each year. 

On the way home we drove by a beautiful home that looks more like a hotel than a home.  It is called Rancho Milagro (Miracle Ranch) and is fantastic.  Rich or poor, it is nice to have money.

The fences in the picture enclose a number of horse riding areas and they were running a tractor with a rake over them and they looked like a horse show was coming up.