Saguaro National Park (East)

When we finished our drive around and through the Silverbell Mine, we decided we weren’t ready to go home yet.  In fact, if we didn’t have a golf date set for tomorrow, we might stay out another night.  So instead of heading back home, we decided to see what Saguaro National Park has to offer.  We stopped at the visitors center, and the ranger said that if we only had today, our best bet was to drive the Cactus Forest Scenic Loop Drive.  It is an 8 mile loop that that goes through the west side of the park.  The east side of the park is hiking trails only…no vehicles.  Since we have spent a lot of time in the desert in our RZR, we knew that we probably wouldn’t see anything new, but we’re still excited to see what this park had to offer.  The thing that surprised us the most about this park was how many different types of cacti it has.  In this picture, prickly pear, cholla, barrel and saguaro.

The park overlooks the Santa Catalina mountains.

While we were walking around, we came across this toppled giant.  It probably came down in last summer’s monsoons.  We couldn’t imagine how old it must have been.  

The one thing that the ranger didn’t tell us, is that the only crested saguaro is in the picnic area, not the scenic drive loop.  If you’ve never seen a crested saguaro, it’s definitely worth a peek.