Hiking Saguaro National Park

Shortly after arriving at Voyager, we connected with John and Elaine Weber who have a park model at the park. They are neighbours from Mannheim and recommended this park to us. Its nice to have friends to show you around. They suggested a drive to see the sights and we ended up at Saguero park. We weren't dressed for a hike so we're coming back.

Now we're ready with hats, water and proper hiking attire. Saguaro (pronounced sah WAH row) National park consists of two parks, the west park which is west of Tucson and the east park. Guess which side thats on. Thats the one we are hiking first.
The park is large with dozens of hiking trails. The plants all have sharp barbs and walking off the trails is almost impossible. Even on the trails plants overhang the trail and must be walked around to prevent injury.

Washes are the best for hiking on and have great scenery but invariably are across the trail not along it so back to the bush.

You can see part of Tucson in the background. There were no mishaps on this trek so we'll try the west park next.

Another day, the other park. This one is a bit more of a challenge; we are going to hike to the top of the hill above my head. Yosemite Sam decided to come along and looks eager to get moving.

This hike is constantly uphill which gives better views but my knees started to get sore. I can't imagine doing this hike during the hot summer.

We reached the top of our hill so I climbed onto the highest rock for the best view. As you can see there is a hill behind me even higher but I think this is enough for today.

Time for a rest and some water before the hike back down. We are younger than John and Elaine but can't keep up with them. I think its the hiking sticks, maybe they are spring loaded or something. Anyway, they generously let us catch our breath at the summit before double timing back down.

John sets a blistering pace back down. Carmen is keeping up but I'm losing ground. Of all the places we have hiked, we haven't seen so many Saguaro cacti as here. They look like an army standing in the background.

Finally they stopped and let me catch up. Showoffs. Based on the height of the Saguaro beside Carmen its around 50 years old. They don't get any arms until around 80 or 90 years old and usually live to around 200 years. They can grow to 50' tall and have a dozen arms. When full of water they can weigh up to 8 tons which is 85% water. At least I learned something on these hikes.