Saguaro National Park

So, on our way to Tombstone I saw the saguaro.  When we got really close to Tucson, I saw an exit sign for one of the two Saguaro National Parks.  I'm thinkin', Mother Lode!!  Unbeknownst to Granpa, Tombstone just became a sideshow!  But we're spending the night in Tombstone, so we have to push on and set up our campsite.

We do the Tombstone thing, and it was truly fascinating.  I'd go back in a heartbeat because we didn't get to do nearly half of the stuff that was offered.  I want to go back and visit Geronimo's Stronghold - even if I have to get there on horseback. (Break my heart!)

Granpa wants to go home by way of Sedona, so we take a scenic route out the east side of Tucson and discover the other Saguaro National Park.  Gotta go!!

I have to tell you that I don't think I have ever been disappointed by a National Park - until then.  I'm thinkin' that, since the place has been set aside for a hundred years, I'm expecting a literal forest of giant saguaro.  Not happenin'.

Granpa is being so-o-o-o nice and tryin' his best to find some decent ones - or at least healthy ones - to take pictures of.  We do the whole Cactus Forest Drive and stop at every interpretive sign, but by the end of the road we are both very glad that, with our Senior Pass, the entrance fee was free.  This is about the best photo he got:

Our literature says that in the early 1900's this area had the most spectacular stand of saguaros in Arizona.  Something tells me the NPA management failed pretty miserably, huh?  (Or was it the fact that Tucson came in and stole all of the ground water??)  And regrowing it at a 1/4" a year is gonna take some time!  No magic bullets on this one, no mega-buck solution here.  I'm not even sure that  fertilizer would help.

But because we came here, we learned about a pretty special kind of saguaro:  the crested saguaro.
"Though these crested saguaros are somewhat rare, over 25 have been found within the boundaries of the park. Biologists disagree as to why some saguaros grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage. At this point we simply do not know what causes this rare, crested form."

We also learned that the saguaro blossom is the State Wildflower of Arizona, 

a saguaro without "arms" is called a spear, the largest known saguaro is the Campion Saguaro in Maricopa County, Arizona standing a little over 45 feet tall, bats are mammals (I knew that!) and the amino acids in the pollen appear to help sustain lactation in bats (that's cool), harming a saguaro is against state law in Arizona, the spines of this cactus are sometimes used as a sewing needle by the Tohono O'odham Indians, and there are no wild saguaros anywhere in the western U.S. states of Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, or Nevada - not even in the high deserts of northern Arizona!  It is native only to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California.  So the trip was worth it, but the Lord always has a surprise waiting in the wings for us...

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