Saguaro, Saguaro Everywhere!

Saguaro National Park looks very similar to Sabino Canyon. Cacti everywhere. We drove the loop which offers many different views of the park, before stopping to hike the Freeman Homestead Trail.

Saguaro NP is home to 25 different species of cactus. The ones we noticed most were 

of course the saguaro (sah-wah-roe), the teddybear chollo, prickly pear, and chainfruit cholla.

We thought the saguaros look like people. Here's Asher doing his best impression of this one. 

The cacti are so thick trails narrow in parts that it made me nervous having the kids hiking so close to them. I stepped backwards into a barrel cactus a couple years ago and it just recently stopped hurting, so I'm especially careful with the kids around them. Fortunately we had no issues.

Overlooking the Sonoran Desert

We found a few of these saguaro "skeletons" which look pretty cool. The rangers told us
these are very valuable and they sometimes catch people trying to smuggle them out of the park. 

Saguaro grow at different rates depending on the climate and precipitation. Here they begin growing flowers after around 35 years and it takes about 50-70 years for them to start growing "arms. They are considered an adult at 125 years and will continue growing up to 50 feet tall and weighing over 6 tons! This one that Asher is checking out is probably well over 125 years old!

We found a few bird nests built among the cacti and were excited to find four little blue eggs in one.

To cool them off, Daddy put water in their hats. They thought this was great fun.

Feeling refreshed, apparently it was time for Journey to dance it out down the trail. 

Once we made it back to the truck it was time to break out a watermelon for snack.

Arizona's Sabino Canyon

Daddy explored Sabino Canyon in the past, and now it was time to return as a family. It's a National Recreation Area on the east side of Tucson. They conveniently offer shuttles to take you thru the canyons because it's so hot here. We opted to hike it ourselves since it was only in the low 90s. 

We saw a bunch of these Roundtail Ground Squirrels running around. They were so cute and make a cute little 

squeaky noise. We were lucky enough to see a baby run up to its mommy and watch her feed him (in photo below).

The Greater Earless Lizard. We had fun watching these run along the trail.

More saguaro (sah-wah-roe) than I've ever seen!

Watching a squirrel who is watching them.

Asher dropped his sunglasses over the edge. Made for an interesting retrieval.

They earned another Junior Ranger badge!

Gila Cliff Dwellings

While in City of Rocks, we took the opportunity to drive the 2 hours to visit Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The drive takes you from the low desert and winds high up into the mountains of the Gila National Forest. It really gave us a unique view into what New Mexico has to offer. My expectations of New Mexico included desert, but little else. I was very wrong. We drove along the Gila River, thru heavy pines with deer crossing in front of us.

Once we arrived, we picked up Jr Ranger booklets for the kids and headed to the trail.

We spotted this spiny crevice lizard peeking out along our path.

Our first look at the cliff dwellings.

A ranger met us at the top and explained the history of the dwellings. He demonstrated that the rock sounds differently, more of a hollow sound, when you tap it if it's going to fall. He also told us about the intricately designed pottery that was crafted and used in this area.

Shortly after arriving at the top, we were hustled inside to the rear of the largest cave due to a nearby  lightning strike. They explained New Mexico is ranked 3rd in lightning strikes. One of our rangers had been previously struck twice! Considering we were all on top of a mountain, the risks were greatly increased. The procedure is to shut down the trail and keep visitors in the safety of the cave until 30 minutes has passed since the last lightning strike in the area. Even though we had no idea how long we would be held up by the storm, we considered ourselves lucky to be here with three rangers and lots of time to hear about the caves and the stories they had to share.

About an hour later, the storm had passed and we were cleared to continue exploring the caves and dwellings.

Later we hiked another area and found this other two room dwelling. The rangers

 said there are hundreds of dwellings in this area that can be found by hiking around.

The kids earned their third Junior Ranger badge here.

The view along the drive home looking out over the Gila National Forest.