The plan today was to suit up after Ben’s board call and head over to Saguaro National Park (which we learned is pronounced SAGUARO in case you were curious), and see what there was to see!
So as we prepared to set off for the day, we planned for direct sun, high altitude, intense heat, and no shade.
We call these our big dumb hats and they are big and dumb, but one of us would burst into flame without it out here.
Although Ben can’t see it, I know he can tell that without his sun hat, those chicken feathers on the top of his head (note that I didn’t say bald spot) don’t do anything to stop the intensity of the sun roasting his scalp. Five minutes and it’s overdone. So the big dumb hat gets deployed frequently.
Off we went!
First stop, visitors center!
Immediately upon entrance, we were face to face with several large displays covering the various flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert (The Sonoran Desert being a US desert which I had never heard of before today. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention that day in science or social studies, I guess. Ben doesn’t remember it either.)
Thanks to the display, we quickly learned that there are lots of snakes in the desert, ok, that’s enough of that display…moving on.
We hit the gift shop, looking for that sticker for the National Park merit badge and for any other cool stuff. Bought some postcards too which are fun to find, write and easy to send!
On the way out, we noticed that there was an informational presentation that lasted 15 minutes and was about to start. Heck yeah, we could use some information!
We quietly entered the surprisingly large theater area, which was arranged like a movie theatre with three rows of semi-comfortable interlocking chairs arranged in front of a heavy set of curtains. There was nobody there, so we picked the best seats, saved them with our gear and then wandered around as we still had a few minutes before the scheduled start time.
We sat back down in our seats and waited for the top of the hour, wondering why no one else was coming in.
We were so excited.
At about one minute after, the back door to the theater room opened briefly and this cute little old park ranger (at least in his early 80’s), poked his head in and looked around the room. He jumped a little when he saw us. He didn’t say a word, just slowly turned around and left. About 15 seconds later, the lights dimmed and the movie started. He sure seemed surprised to see people waiting for the big show! 😅
We learned a lot, but mostly we learned that we had been pronouncing Saguaro wrong our whole lives. Again, it is pronounced “Saguaro” with the emphasis on the cactus.
Now we can say “Saguaro” with no issues. You hear the difference now? Good. 😝
We had been warned via several strategically placed 8.5×11 sheets of paper that the screen was broken and that they would be projecting it onto the curtains. We thought that would be fine. And we were right. It was fine.
We were enthralled.
It honestly was an informative little presentation, primarily about what the area meant to the people who have lived here for generations and generations, which was interesting to learn.
Just when we thought the show was over, BOOM, the projector shut off, the curtains quickly opened wide to reveal a direct view of the desert through huge floor to ceiling windows. It was impressive! Talk about showmanship!
Invigorated to explore this area of beauty, we quickly grabbed our stuff, shot out of our chairs like a rocket, and charged out of the visitor station (pausing to use the restroom, of course), and ran right smack into the heat of the day. Holy moly. Good thing one of us has our big dumb hat! And a truck to cool off in!
Back in the quickly cooling truck, we started out into the park.
This place is stuffed with saguaros and pencil cactus and cholla cactus, and some other stuff that the film mentioned but we had not exactly memorized all the way. But, the point is, there are a lot of prickly, neat plants that apparently love being very dry and hot and sunny most of the time.
Now that we had learned about the park, it was finally time to explore and find some incredible cacti!
Boy, would I love to say it was Ben who was acting dumb today, but it wasn’t, for once. 😂 I was acting like the cactus was hurting me and it actually bit me on the booty, mere seconds after the picture below was taken. Turns out I messed with the wrong cactus! It’s a cholo cactus, or jumping cactus. They don’t actually jump, but it only takes the barest of touches and a piece will detach from the plant and attach to whatever brushed it (judging by Ann’s yelp, they hurt). It didn’t really hurt that badly, but I managed to get Ben to closely inspect my rear end in the middle of the desert, so it was worth it. 😉
Above is the cactus piece Ben quickly pulled out of my right butt cheek with his ever present pocket knife. It’s nice being married to a prepared man! So the lesson here today, kids, is stay away from the cacti. Got it. Message received.
We’ll make sure to add a cactus puncture wound kit to our first aid kit for our future desert adventures and pray we don’t need it.
Another fun fact? These saguaros can live up to almost 200 years old. They are very very slow growing. It takes about ten years for the saguaro to grow its first inch. It does the straight up the middle thing for the first 50 to 75 years, when it finally starts sprouting an arm or two.
We had fun imagining how hard the poor saguaro had to strain for all of those years, pushing and straining and grunting just to grow a tiny bit each year, subsisting on rare rainfall and ample sunshine, year after year after year before finally being able to throw a couple buds out.
In fact, we made a short film about the experience.
You can watch it below. It might play whether you want it to or not, actually.
These saguaros are pretty entertaining!
That is pretty much how the majority of our tour went, and this was shot before we actually left the visitor center. I hope they don’t have cameras out there, because we were laughing hysterically as we wandered around the saguaros surrounding the parking area.
However, we did eventually make it into the park itself.
This was our favorite…
Having seen as many cacti as we could handle, we headed back to the camper to plan the afternoon, hit the grocery store to stock up before our drive tomorrow, and basically take care of little stuff for the afternoon.
Grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, a night spent quietly listening to music outside in the rapidly cooling 97 degree evening, and we were done.
Off to Las Cruces, NM tomorrow and White Sands National Park!
TaterTotTales 