Saguaro National Park

I had scheduled an extra day at Kartchner Caverns state park to be able to explore the area a bit. We spent the day exploring the east section of Saguaro National Park which was about an hour from us and drove through Tuscan, stopping for lunch and a bit of shopping. That evening I got to get more desert exploring in at the state park. 

Our route to Saguaro took us off the highway and onto some residential roads. Did you know people actually live near state parks?? Arizona houses are concrete in general and landscaped with the desert in mind, very few areas of grass. The grass we saw was probably fake, but driving, we didn't check it out. There were people riding bikes all along the road and there were bike lane for them. We turned into the park and there was a full parking lot of people getting bikes ready for biking the park road. I don't know if it was a special event, or an every day thing. There were no signs or water tables anywhere, so maybe a bike club? We followed the signs at the entrance and took the 10 mile loop road around the park, deciding to stop at every pull out. We did wind up skipping a couple, but not many. We walked on a paved nature trail and explored bits of several dirt trails that lead off the pullouts. Most of the cactus in this part of the park are young. When the old ones started dying off, they thought there was some kind of cactus blight. They then learned that saguaro cannot survive cold temperatures for more that a couple hours. If they get too cold, they start to die and do it slowly. Then they realized there were few young cacti. They had to end the cattle grazing rights so the cattle wouldn't trample the young cacti. Now this part of the park is doing well and there is a whole forest of teenage cacti. There was a picnic area down at the end of a long dirt road. There was a family at the picnic are with small kids and no car parked nearby. We wondered how they got there. I heard a lot of birds, but they are fast and I had trouble spotting them, let alone catching them with my camera. The desert is full of life. It is really amazing how much grows and thrives there. 

After we finished exploring, we went to the visitor center, there were empty parking spots on our way out. They were very busy with people buying souvenirs and snacks and asking about hikes and where they could take dogs (not many places, only on paved roads, which is why I left my dogs at the camper). Mom bought me some cactus and butterfly identification books and prickly pear jelly and candy. The jelly is good,, the candy no so much. We asked the ranger about places for lunch and she told us how to get to the main road through Tuscan called Speedway Blvd. that had many restaurants and stores. This road was like a nice version of New Haven times 5. It was 6 lanes with an island down the middle and stores and shopping centers on both sides. I didn't want a chain. I turned in at the spur of the moment to a farm to table type diner called First Watch. When I looked it up it is called a cafe chain. It was really good. Mom got a delicious salad, she really liked the dressing. I got a Lemon curd filled ricotta pancake, delicious. While we were waiting for food and people watching, always interesting, this was a college area, I looked up kinds of stores we were interested in. I found 2 used bookstores called Bookman's. We followed the road to the closest one. It was huge. It was the size of Best Buy, but for books, cd's, dvd's, records, and games. It was amazing. I bought 4 Audubon society field guides. I just need a mushroom field guide now. After we finished shopping, we followed the road back to I-10 and headed to our home on wheels. I would like to spend more time in Tuscan. It is a really nice city.

I left all the pictures in and didn't name them. I will go back and put the names in in a while. If you tell me you miss them, I will put them in sooner.