As busy as our days might be, our morning do seem relaxed. I like to get a cup of coffee into my belly, Shar starts organizing Austin. We’ve practiced converting Austin into Driving Mode so many times to accomplish that task is in the minutes at this point. With plenty of light by 5am, that isn’t a hindrance. The leading factor for when we wake up is when the next park/monument we’re visiting opens, and that information is in the Itinerary or the NPS app. Speaking of, you should download it before visiting any national park, monument, historical site, etc. They have everything you would ever need to plan a visit. I was able to download all the places we listed on the itinerary ahead of time, giving us no reception/offline access to all the information we need to make plans before we arrive.
It was a beautiful, relaxing drive down our kind of road: one lane in each direction, picturesque, not a human in sight. We came into Tucson from the northwest, and wouldn’t really see any of the city for hours. I practiced pronouncing “su-gwar-o” correctly as we made our way down the road to the Red Hills Visitors Center. Saguaro National Park is made up of two separate chunks, one on each side of Tucson. We would be exploring Saguaro West first.
The visitors center was outstanding! A huge diorama of a Sonoran Desert scene with life-sized replicas of creatures and fauna was the centerpiece. Informative exhibits lined the walls, and the staff were friendly and knowledgable. The only negative was the water filling station out front. It was unusable due to a group of visitors that had gotten there before we did, forcing us to refill our water bottles in the restroom. JJ, one of the custodial staff, explained that the honey bees had a nest nearby and when the pool the park tries to keep filled dries up they come to the drinking fountain for water. He said that they are Africanized, and are therefor more aggressive. As long as you calmly move away you’ll be fine, something I have trouble doing. He nicely waited until we left the area to start the vacuum he was about to use, because in his words, “Its makes the bees act unpredictable”.
The most impressive part of the visitors center was the video. We’ve had good and not as good examples of park videos throughout our trip, but this one topped them all by miles. The video was well done, clearly making connections between the peoples that call the area home, the land, and its resources. The focus was on the Saguaro cactus, and we got to see local native peoples harvesting the fruit and turning it into wine. This was our first bit of learning about the Saguaro. By the end of the day we would have a true appreciation of that wonderful plant, its place in this biome, and how important a resource the Saguaro is for the area. The video wrapped up with a picturesque montage of Sonoran Desert scenes, the voiceover suggesting that visitors to take a moment to pause and take in the nature around them, then started to fade to black. As it did so the screen began retracting. When it was about half way up, the curtains behind parted, revealing a view of the desert outside. It was orchestrated perfectly.
We finished up our exhibit reading and bought our souvenirs. Talking to the rangers and volunteer is one bit of advice we recommend anytime you visit any of the parks or national monuments. They are the area experts and their advice has always made our visit better. This was no exception as Rick pointed at a park map, using a highlighter to mark out suggestions for the day.
Our first stop was the Valley View Trail about 20 minutes away. It's a short 0.6 mile hike into the desert, but the temperature was already in the mid 90’s and climbing. We set a timer for 15 minutes, but didn’t even reach that before we turned around when my head started feeling fuzzy. By the time we got back to the Jeep I was feeling fine, perhaps having drank too much water that morning. We did stop to pick a fruit off a low hanging arm of a Saguaro to sample. It has a slightly sweet taste and many, many small black seeds, very similar to the taste of dragonfruit. It must take a lot of fruit juice, strained and condensed, to make the ceremonial wine we had seen done in the park video.
Being surrounded by the majestic Saguaro cactus you quickly see how much of an impact they have on the area. All manner of insects and birds make their home in and on the cactus, their fruit falls to nourish the ground and more life. I was amazed how much more treelike they are than plant. The ribs are made of wood, and probably average three inches in diameter. By then end of our time among them they ceased to be a plant/tree and took on more human characteristics. i.e. A grandfather telling stories to a group of grandkids, two people hugging, a teenager being defiant, a family posing for a picture, etc
After King’s Canyon it was time to leave Saguaro West. We drove 45 minutes across Tucson to Saguaro East and its Rincon Mountain Visitors Center. The focus of this side of the park is an 8 mile one way driving loop with a few viewpoints, with most of East having been left wild. There are numerous backpacking opportunities, so I put a pin in the area as a possible backpacking excursion trip someday.
We finished our drive, bought an addition sticker to represent Saguaro East, and set the navigation to Tumacacori National Historical Place located 30 minutes down I-19 from Tucson. We decided to fill up Austin in the nearby town of Vail, having some fun getting there after missing a turn.
Tumacacori National Historical Place is a Jesuit Mission that converted to Franciscan when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain by Charles the Third. We used all of the hour and a half we had left before they closed at 5pm to tour the grounds, the church, museum, and buy our souvenirs. It was interesting, but not mind blowing in anyway.
I had a hankering for ribs and we tried to find a place in the nearby town of Tupac, but neither of the two restaurants were open. We set the navigation to get us close to our next day’s stop, Coronado National Memorial, saw that we would pass through several towns/cities, and crossed our fingers. We had dinner stuff in RC as backup, so we would eat well either way.
We cruised down I-19 for 8 miles before leaving it to meander through several miles of residential areas. Shar had been wanting to see a javelina in the wild. We were going north on AZ-82 when I spotted a single one standing alongside the road. I did a three point turn, but we didn’t see it. Another three point turn got us going in the correct direction and we spotted the herd in the trees. They’re basically hairy pigs.
A few minutes later we spotted a restaurant/bar, The Wagon Wheel, in the small town of Patagonia, population 820. They ended up not having ribs, but the ribeye steak cooked perfectly was a satisfying replacement. Shar had a western burger and we shared our sides of fries, beans, and coleslaw. The two pounders of Barrio Blond topped off a tasty, belated birthday dinner.
We continued on AZ-82 and passed through the larger town of Sonoita a short time later. Taking a right onto AZ-83 we found a large gravel area a few miles out of town, and about a hundred yards off of AZ-83. A fire pit indicated that it had been used for the same purpose before and we quickly got Austin into Sleeping Mode.
We had passed a Border Patrol car sitting outside of Sonoita and a van doing the same about a mile away on AZ-83. Probably a normal thing around here, but it was something that weirded us out a little.
The night had cooled off and we confirmed that the cargo area light would indeed turn off in 15 minutes. Shar likes being surround by fresh air, I’m impartial as long as I’m warm enough. So I bundle up with the comforter, and we leave the sunroof, windows, and hatch wide open. As long as there isn’t any bugs we both get a great night’s sleep.
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