We took Tom and Una with us to show them the petroglyphs in the Saguaro National Park not far from their home. They had never been there. We found the petroglyphs on our last trip here and they are a bit off the beaten trail, not easy to find.
Saguaro National Park is rightly named as Saguaro cactus are everywhere.
We reached the rocky hill where the petroglyphs are located, being watchful for slinky critters. A group of school kids were there ahead of us so we figured that if snakes were around the kids would be bait and wouldn’t be interested in us…we hoped.
What we forgot since our last visit here, was that the trail to where all the petroglyphs are, has many, many steps up to the top. I know this picture looks mostly like a simple path, but trust me, there were many steps of varying heights, challenging old legs and knees. However, all four of us made it with no heart attacks reported.
From the lower levels, we could see a variety of drawings.
From up top there were more, however, signs said that no one really knows what they mean, only that they were done by the Hohokam Indians a long time ago.
Views across the desert from the top were impressive.
Our next stop was Mission San Xavier del Bac, a historic Spanish mission named in 1692 for a pioneering Christian missionary.
The inside is very ornate. It has been a continually working mission since that era. Currently damage from age is being renovated.
The next day we met up with Lisa and Rich Atkinson. Don and Rich have been close friends since 1978. Since this was a Saturday, Rich sacrificed his usual weekly golf game to spend the day with us which we greatly appreciated.
We next visited the Desert Museum, which is more of a zoo than a museum. It is an amazing place, again in the Saguaro National Park.
First we entered the Hummingbird enclosure. Now I don’t know if you have ever tried to photograph hummingbirds, but they are not good at posing for you. Finally I found one sitting on a nest who was actually holding still enough for me to take a picture.
There were cactus gardens everywhere. This cactus has spent blooms and yellow seed pods under where the blossoms used to be. Chipmunks climb up and take the yellow pods off, open them up and eat the seeds inside.
There were numerous animals, Big Horn Sheep…
Bob Cats…
Napping Javelinas…
A Mountain Lion and much more. (Sorry about the slobbers on the glass from little kids.)
In between the animals we we saw, were specular desert and mountain views.
The next day was a trip to Sabino Canyon, by ourselves. It was a weekend day and the parking lot was jammed full of cars. We nearly decided to just forget it, but didn’t, which was a good thing in the end.
We rode a tram all the way up the canyon and back again. Younger people hiked either part or all the way.
A narrow winding road built in the 1930’s snakes up the canyon.
Sabino Creek runs along the road, right now at low level. They are hoping for rain soon. There are several very narrow bridges across this creek. The tram only misses the edge of the bridges by a couple inches on each side. An earlier tram had hit a bridge, slowing the trip up the canyon.
It was a beautiful, relaxing ride and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Next we are going to Benson, Arizona, just south of Tucson and doing some caving among other excursions.
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