Walking around the Sonoran desert is like walking in a manicured garden. There's no under-wood, no dried up weeds to weed-whack. The terrain is made of an homogeneous, compacted red sand. It looks orderly. The plants can be admired in their entirety like a painting hung on a colored wall.
There are giant saguaros everywhere. They punctuate the plain and the mountains like exclamation points.
We took a 6 mile hike in the Saguaro National Park, guided by our friends, Ruth and Rich. We reached a small creek with flowing water. The view was amazing. We could see Paul McCartney's ranch that he had bought for his wife Linda Eastman. He hardly ever lives there. Our friends say that he sends a beautiful bouquet of flowers every time they have an HOA Christmas party, since he can't attend it.
On the other side of the valley, Rich indicates another chain of mountains where Pima canyon is located. He told me it is also a really nice hike of 11 miles that takes you up to Mount Kimball.
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| fish-hook cactus in bloom |
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| Desert Spoon is native to this area and does not need any irrigation. |
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| The white roof belongs to one of the houses in the McCartney's ranch |
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| This mistletoe's berries are edible and they tasted bad. They are supposed to cleanse your blood. |
At one point on the hike we reached the site where a very rare saguaro is located, the Cristate or “crested” saguaro, as it has a crest on the top. This is happens when cells in the growing stem begin to divide outward, rather than in the circular pattern of a normal cactus. This is an unusual mutation which results in the growth of a large fan-shaped crest at the growing tip of a saguaro’s main stem or arms. One of the reasons for this anomaly may be frost, but it has not been proven. Amazing!
On the ground there were sparkles and you could see some also from a distance. There were pieces of mica. Nice!
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| Mica |
I love this blog. Great photos and interesting info. Happy trails... A.S.
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