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Saguaro National Park West
Our final day on our Four Corners trip was spent in the southwestern part of Arizona, near Tucson. This is where the Saguaro National Park West is located. This is a REALLY cool desert area with the tall, green cactus that you see in photos. Those cactus are known as "Saguaro" (pronounced "Sah-waro"). They can get 20' or more tall! It takes them over 100 years to reach this height, though.
We came in down Sandario Road on the western side, and drove in to the visitor center. We watched the short film (pretty much a waste of time, it gives no actual information and is solely about "respect the lands"). We then went to Hohokam road - which is dirt for much of the way - and drove slowly around to the various hiking trails, and did some hiking. This is the only time during the trip that we really needed the SUV, and even so I'm sure we would have been fine (although perhaps a bit more nervous) in a regular sedan.
After we got around to Signal Hill we headed east and up out of the park. We saw some rabbits and birds, but no other real wildlife. Several people we passed were very disappointed that there were not lots of wild animals around, like a safari. It's important to go in here with expectations - that is, you'll mostly be experiencing the quiet desert landscape, full of cool large saguaro cactii.
We really wanted to see a rattlesnake today, and did a lot of hiking. We even were by rocks with rattlesnake warnings on them. No rattlesnakes. I'm sure some people would say we were quite lucky NOT to find a rattlesnake. If we were more Nature Channel-ish we might have started flipping over rocks and sticking our hands into holes, but we were trying to be non-intrusive. Ah well, you make these compromises sometimes.
Eventually we had to head back towards Phoenix. Unfortunately my half sister had to work, so we couldn't see her. However, we did find a bar in the terminal that was showing baseball, so we could watch the game. It was a long haul to get home again, but the trip was well worth it!
Enjoy the photos!
Saguaro National Park West Slideshow Photo
The pictures on the topic of Saguaro National Park West for this slideshow were all taken by Lisa Shea.
Saguaro National Park West Photo Slideshow Main Page
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