Another Tucson Mountain Park Hike

This is where we parked for the previous hike and we had one more hike we wanted to do out of here so we came back today to do it.

We wanted to hike to this rock on the hill. It wasn't easy finding the trail and we ended up cross-country-ing to the bottom of the rock.

We made it to the bottom of the rock. There was a small cave behind where I am standing. It was a nice shady place to take a break and catch my breath.

As we hiked around the bottom of the rock, we saw this saguaro growing out of the rocks. There are two even smaller saguaros growing just over the top of the big one and to the left. You will have to enlarge the photo to see them.

This is the view as we climbed to the top.

If you go back to the first photo of the rock on the hill, you can see small ones caught in the middle. We tried valiantly to keep them in place.

From the top of the rock, we looked east and could see some of Tucson in the distance.

Another view from the rock.

We then went back down the hill and found the trail to that saddle in the east so we could see what was over the hill.

Well there's a lot more park between the saddle and Tucson

Then we hiked to the south and looked over another saddle.

Tucson Mountain Park Hike

We went hiking in Tucson Mountain Park again just at a different place.

There's a trail up to this boulder that we will hike another time.

Nolan got a hitchhiker. Yep he got too close to a cholla cactus and it attached to the camera bag. Then he got his arm too close and it jumped onto him!

Those spines really dig in. I took two rocks and yanked the thing off of him. He only yelped a little.

Notice he isn't getting too close to the cacti now?

Well until he started pretending to be one.

We ended up running out of trail or else we just missed a turn and followed a "path" where the water had run off the hillside. Anyway we eventually followed a wash back downhill.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

On December 30th we headed west out of Tucson on Hwy 86. We're not far out of Tucson at this point. There lots of mountains around Tucson.

Organ Pipe Cactus at Visitor Center.

In back of the visitor center there is a trail with some informational markers along it. These are Quitobaquito Pupfish. They are an endangered species and are found

in only three places: In this pool at the visitor center, at Quitobaquito Springs and in the Rio Sonoyta in Mexico.

The trail behind the visitor center.

I'm sure I had a post about "jumping cholla" a couple years ago but it's been deleted. You have to be careful about getting close to the cholla because sections can attach to you real easy. I hear they hurt like heck too.

The Visitor Center is named after this young ranger that was killed by drug runners. Unlike most rangers, those at this National Monument have to deal with smugglers of drugs and immigrants.

We decided to drive the Ajo Mountain Drive Loop

They advertise it as a 21 mile graded dirt road but we found it to be gravel. It started off wide and level but became narrow and wash-board. Sections were paved and some washes would have been terrible on a motorcycle. We were really happy we drove the car.

Map of the area.

One of the washes that would have been treacherous on a motorcycle.

The bush in front of the saguaro is a creosote bush.

Look at all the saguaro!!

One of the infrequent paved sections.

You can see the road head of us in this photo.

We saw just this one ocotillo that was leafed out. They have had some rain in this area.

Close up of the leaves. The leaves die off if the plant doesn't have enough water and then the plant looks dead but it's just waiting for rain.

Then we saw another ocotillo with flowers on it but no leaves. Interesting.

The loop goes around the Diablo Mountains.

Double click on this photo so you can see the arches.

Close up of the arches.

We hiked the Arches Trail. It doesn't go to the arches but it goes around the back of the mountain.

It was a very narrow trail that went through gullies and around cacti.

Looking back toward the parking lot. You can't see it in this photo.

There were a few balancing rocks.

Nolan took lots of photos of this rock formation. Interesting how the one rock balances on the top.

There were different kinds of rocks but these were the most interesting. They had lots of holes where it looked like air bubbles had popped.

The trail is supposedly 3/4 of a mile long but I don't know if that includes the part after this sign. It really turned into solid rock here and got real steep.

The the scenery here was beautiful!

Two hikers were headed down and Nolan took this photo of them disappearing around the corner.

It's really hard to see but there is a saguaro cactus at the top of this peak. It's right on the edge and looks like it's going to fall off at any time.

You can't see the near part of the path here because it is so steep that we had to climb using both hands and feet. I thought for a moment that I was going to have to go down on my backside!

Ok use your imagination here. The top half of the tallest column looks like a creature facing off to the right with its eyes closed . The mouth is kinda down-turned.

A lot of people like to use saguaro skeletons as decorations. I think the Chain-fruit Cholla skeletons are much prettier. This cholla is dead and the "skin" is falling off so you can see the skeleton. There are healthy chollas in the background.

After the hike we got back on the road. This is another wash crossing that would have been terrible on a motorcycle. Ok on a street bike.

This poor saguaro had quite a split in it.
Well we finished the loop and got back on the highway headed home. This felt like a super-highway after all that bumping over the rocky road.
Just north of the park is the town of Why. Very interesting name.

Well what other name would you use in a town called Why?

The mountain always look so fake when the sun is going down.