Again, sunny and clear when we woke up.
After breakfast we decided it was time to go exploring. Our destination was to the south, just outside Tuscon in the Saguaro National Park. We used the Interstate to get there as there was no simple alternate route.
Once off the freeway we had a few navigation problems, but got those sorted out with a quick stop at the tourist information bureau.
General View From Truck
We left the paved surface and started out on a sand / gravel road that was recommended for high clearance vehicles only! The road was pretty rough with a washboard surface, it meandered its way up and over a 3,000ft mountain; I wouldn’t have been happy taking the car. All around us were cacti and more mountains.
We even found a flowering cactus
We had packed a lunch and stopped at one of the picnic areas that had been set up back in the 1930’s. The US government had a make work project back in the great depression to allow out of work people to earn some money and and do projects that will benefit the community.
Lunch with a view
After lunch we headed out along the road to walking trail. This was a hard slog as we were about 3000′ up and the temperature was around 25°C. To make life a little more difficult the trail was fairly soft sand. Along the trail were a number of Blue Palo Verde trees, which despite the English part of the name, are green.
Two miles of this was a good workout. Back at the beginning of the trail, there was a shorter trail that led up to some petroglyths (rock engravings), that date back many thousands of years.
After the exercise we slowly wound our way home over more hospitable roads.
