Tucson-Seeing the Sites Part 2

Saguaro National Park

If you stay in this area for any amount of time, you will see the word Saguaro.  I was not familiar with it.  But it is as famous and popular for this region as the word desert. It is the monarch cactus of the Sonoran Desert, the symbol of the American Southwest. It’s odd shape, usually human shape, makes it very recognizable.

Today we visited Saguaro National Park in the Sonoran Desert outside of Tucson. Here is what I learned about the Saguaro, Saguaros grow very slowly.  After 15 years, it may be barely 12 inches in height. At about 30 years, they begin to flower and produce fruit. By 50 years, they can be as tall as 7 feet. After 75 years, it may sprout its first branches or arms.  By 100 years, they may reach 25 feet. Ones they live to 150 years or more, they can tower to 50 feet and weigh 16,000 pounds. By far, these are the largest cacti in the US. So when I look at my pictures, I can  now judge the age. I would have never guess they were that old.

One thing that definitely caught our attention was all the signs through out the park about “Watch out for Rattle Snakes”.  I wasn’t too concerned, it’s winter time and they are all in hibernation, right?

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

After visiting the National Park, we visited the Tuscon city run Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum which is located on the outer edge of the National Park. This museum is describe as a place to see and experience the Sonora Desert.  In my mind, I was expecting to see vegetation gardens, it would take thirty minutes and we are finished. I was not expecting the museum to be as good as it was. It presented the complete ECO system of the desert.  It was very well done with underground caves, underwater viewing of live desert creatures, live desert animals, live birds of the desert and desert vegetation. It took all afternoon to see it all.  Denise and I would put this museum on the top of our list for sites to see in Tucson.

SONOITA/ELGIN WINE TRAIL

As we were traveling from Benson to Tucson earlier this week, we notice several signs about Sonoita/Elgin Wine Trail.  We thought it would be a good drive through the country side and see what wineries are like in Arizona.  It was an afternoon of taking dirt roads, getting lost, seeing some really nice grassy rolling hills countryside, expensive ranch homes and tasting some just ‘OK’ wines.

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We are staying at Catalina State Park 14 miles north of Tuscon.  We paid $30/night and have 50amp electrical and water only.  I was able to get over 20 Over-the-Air (OTA) TV channels.  We are on site B4 with our patio side facing the Catalina Mountains.  We enjoyed our stay here.