Saturday in Tucson

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Today was another incredible hot bright sunny blue sky sort of day.

We drove to the East half of the Saguaro National Park, again getting there before it opened. It was CROWDED with bike-riders! Guess they try to get it in before the heat of the day. We did a 1 miles hike out to a lime kiln ruin and a mile back, and saw just one black-throated sparrow and 2 small unidentified birds, possibly gray vireos. All in all we preferred the other half of the National park. We are very grateful for our senior's free pass to the parks too.

The mountains nearby were pretty, and the saguaro cactus varied. We learned to recognize a few types, including the “fish hook” cactus. We shall have to research if the Native Americans used the thorns this way. They don’t get very tall – perhaps 4’. We did spy at last a saguaro that had the fanned out tops, called “fasciated.”

So what else do we know about Saguaros. They sometimes have droopy arms because a frost has damaged the “shoulder.” It can’t hold water, becomes mushy, and droops. This side of the park must receive more rain, because the Saguaros did seem to have more arms.

The fruit of the saguaro is like a fig. The O’odham Indians ferment the fruit into an alcoholic drink consumed in dances that encourage the summer rains.

A 20’ one is likely to weigh a ton!

It must be quite something to see the completely dry “washes” in this area fill up with rushing water in the raining season.

After the hike we were hot and hungry, even tho it was a much easier hike than 2 days ago. We stopped at a simple Mexican restaurant for quesadillas and taco salads and then stopped at Costco for gas ($4.15/gas was a good price by comparison) and some dinners we will take to Portal AZ with us. It will not be as built up as this area so we’d better be prepared.

After a bit of down time at the casita, we headed out to a nearby “wetlands,” probably part of the water reclamation, and it was wonderful. It was a bit dark so David’s photos didn’t turn out all that great, but it was a cooler time of day, with a mild breeze, and it was lovely to walk around and spy: mallards, coots, cinnamon teals, Northern Shovelers, Blue-winged teals, vermilion fly-catchers, and many more. No new birds today tho, so off to Portal!!!!!

Miscellany – what we learned – Tucson holds the largest “boneyard” of discarded airplanes in the world. We drove past the area – rows and rows of planes, all looking in perfect condition.

We also finally got a lovely sunset – there haven’t been enough clouds in the sky for color until this evening. The sun sets early here because it rises so early too (they don’t change their clocks to daylight savings).

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