Saguaro National Park

March 12-13, 2023

The drive to Saguaro National Park was around 30 minutes from the Best Western. On the way there, we were mesmerized by all the Saguaro Cactus in the area. Literally hundredths of thousands of cactus sprawled all around the hillside and mountain. There were also many cactuses in the residential neighborhood as well.  

On our first day we went to the west side of Saguaro known as the Tucson Mountain District and also known as Red Hills. I think I got my times mixed up as Daylight Savings Time for the Spring set the time one hour behind. The visitor center opened at 9am, but on my phone it said 9:50 am. I thought it was opened when in fact it was only 8:50 am. (my time was actually correct, Tuscon has a different time zone than El Paso - they are both mountain standard time, but El Paso uses Daylight Savings Time)

While waiting we read a sign that read we had to pay the $25 vehicle fee at a kiosk. In Saguaro they don't have an entry gate like some of the other National Parks. 

When the gift shop opened at 9am, I was excited to go shopping. In my dreams I imagined a shop with all Saguaro cactus stuff, but in fact it failed my expectations. While there were nice stuff, nothing stood out and I was disappointed.  

After the visitor center we drove on Kinney Road and made a right on an unpaved road called Golden Gate Rd. Our first hike of the day would be on a trail called Signal Hill. It is a short 0.3 mile trail that terminated at some cool looking Petroglyphs. The Saguaro Cactus were all over the place making for some nice photo opts. Near the top is a rattlesnake warning sign which got us a bit scared. One thing good about rattlesnakes is that you should hear a warning with the rattle shaking, but that may not be always the case. As we got to the top, we saw the petroglyph. It appeared to be spiral art work done by the Hohokam Indian Tribe about 500-1000 years ago. I wanted to take a closer picture so I hopped the guardrail and tried to get a picture. I was promptly attacked by this aggressive bee. Apparently the bee was so upset that I entered the area, it kept on attacking my head. It got so aggressive that it stung me on my pointer finger. I could feel the numbness right away. But that didn't matter as the bee continued to attack my head. We got the fuck out of there as the bee, even though it might have been dying was still trying to attack me. We got into the car and left for the next hike. 

The next hike was on Hohokam Road where we would hike 0.3 miles to the Valley Overlook. This is easily the most popular hike on the westside as the parking lot was full and an overflow of cars were parked on the side of the road. Multiple trails intersected the Valley Overlook Trail making it a bit confusing, but if you can read a map then it shouldn't be a problem. Reception is said to be poor in the park, but we had pretty good reception throughout our time on the Westside. 

The Valley Overlook hike gets you to a top of the hill where you get a good vantage points of the Sonoran Dessert. There were some healthy looking Saguaro Catcus sprawled throughout the area. Some of the trunks were really thick 3 or 4 feet thick in my estimation. It was only 71 degress but it felt like 90. I was sweating profusely. I can't imagine what it would be like when it gets to over 100 degrees in the park. Even though some of these hikes are easy, the terrain is unforgiving and if a hiker were unprepared or to get lost, death is imminent for sure. 

After the short hike, we drove around Kinney Road looking for a Crested Saguaro. These Crested Saguaro are extremely rare 1 in 10,000 are crested. We couldn't find any and felt that we would have better luck tomorrow. 

We had a tough decision to make as Michelle wanted Dim Sum. They stopped serving it at 3pm. Instead of going for another hike, we decided to get our fix before they ran out. Its hard to find good dim sum in the mainland. I'm sure there are a lot of places, but in Hawaii we knew were all the places were and had no problem eating amazing dim sum every month.