May 17: Saguaro Nat’l Park and a drive to Las Cruces

An early start this morning took me to Saguaro Nat’l Park, the eastern Rincon Mountain District. There’s a lovely 8 mile scenic drive through the edge of the park, and a trailhead for a short hike along that route. So it was just about the distance of a reservoir walk, but with rocks and rabbits and rattlesnakes.  I didn’t actually see one, but a couple of hikers I met along the path mentioned that they’d seen one on the way to Lime Falls, so they wanted me to be aware. I have a phobia of snakes, and have avoided them all my life.  Wouldn’t even go into the snake room at the zoo or acquarium or wherever they keep them.  Ask Liz.  But when I heard that those hikers had seen one on the way to Lime Falls, a place I wasn’t even heading, damned if I didn’t set out in that direction!  The trail became mixed and less visible, and given my getting “lost” yesterday, I turned around and headed back.  Don’t know what I was thinking anyway! Did take the lime kiln trail to see the ancient kilns that were in use from 1880-1920’s to help build the city of Tucson — lime from the hills and plenty of cheap labor.

The trail was flat and easy surrounded by saguaro and other native, mostly cactus of various types: hedgehog, barrel, teddy bear cholla and prickly pear. The saguaro produces juicy fig like fruit in the summer, and the spring flowers open after sunset and are wilted the next day, but are the Arizona state flower. Some have as many as 100 blooms by the time the flowering is done. It is also home to many animals, who drill holes in the trunks to use as shelter from the heat. They grow very slowly, but live a very long time — some of those towering over 50 ft tall might be 150 years old.

After my morning exercise I hit the road; 4 hours or so to Las Cruces, NM.  There were a few options for side trips, most notably a southern extension to Tombstone, AZ, where the OK Corral is, and the gunfights are re-created every afternoon, but the website made it seem so very commercial that I decided to forego that western theme park. Shortly after the state line, there was a turn off for two separate ghost towns: Shakespeare and  Steins, but once again, with tours given on specific days only, it seemed better to keep driving. Drove over/past (?) the Continental Divide, which was at 4,585 ft, but with no where to pull over, and really not much to look at, it was simply something I noted.

What was typographically fascinating were the great stretches of Interstate 10 which are hazardous for massive dust storms. Parts of the highway were closed on Sunday because of the high winds and lack of visibility.  There were signs that indicated that the next 20 miles were subject to dust storms and zero visibility — several times on the route today.  Didn’t have any issues, but it was windy, and I did see dust funnels in the distance and grabbed a pic of that.  (Wasn’t texting at least)!  And then there was a huge storm that was visibly pouring rain off to the north. At a rest stop just outside of Las Cruces it was the most amazing sight! And the road runner of course.

Looking at Santa Catalina mountains

State flower in bloom

Easy path

See the holes/nests in the trunk?

It wasn’t a jack rabbit, which do inhabit this area, just a bunny

Lime kilns used until the early 1920’s to build Tucson

Dust funnel

While driving!

From the rest stop overlooking Las Cruces

Road runner