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Published: July 11th 2009
Saguaro National Park
The east side of the park.Today we headed to Tucson, Arizona. Saying it just rolls of the tongue and sounds cool. We made it into Tucson in the late afternoon, got settled in the hotel and relaxed.
The next day we went to the Saguaro National Park which consists of both an east and west section seperated by the city. It is situated in the Sonovan Desert it is 91,327 acres and its name comes from the main cactus that are found there, Saguaro. They are the stereotypical American cactus.
They were so big and impressive, I was very pleased to see that the national park was preserving them. Farmers would pull them down when clearing the land for agriculture - it was sad. The east side of the park has a scenic loop that went for 9 miles and covered some beautiful landscapes with wildflowers and cactus. People could either drive, walk or ride the loop. It took us about an hour and a half to complete it, we did loads of stopping for photos and looking. We also stopped a number of times and went for a few walks and then headed to the west side of the park.
The west
Me in Front of a Saguaro Catcus
The east side of Saguaro National Park. side is situated in the Tucson Mountains. It was an especially beautiful as you drove over humps and hills. We spent about an hour in the west side of the park, and drove a small amount of the Scenic Bajada loop drive, stopping off at the Signal Mill Trail. From there we walked a little to the top of the hill, to see some ancient petroglyphs, which are more than 800 years old. Basically they are drawings on the rocks.
Once we left the park we drove a little further and stopped off to have a look at the Old Tucson Studio, it was in the middle of nowhere. The Studio was renowned for its “Wild Wild West” films, it was a western style studio and theme park. They have gun fights, horse riding and the can-can in their saloon. We didn’t actually go in because they wanted $16 each for entry and we thought that was a bit rich! The studio had filmed many a John Wayne film in its day.
We drove on and made our way back closer to Joshua Tree National Park. Our last National Park. On our drive we reached a milestone, we
Stephen in Front of a Saguaro Catcus
The east side of Saguaro National Park. did 10,000 miles in five weeks, pretty impressive huh.
Stay tuned for our last National Park blog.
Love Michelle and Stephen.
xoxo
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