Saguaro National Park is in Tuscon, AZ.  

It is the only place in the world that Saguaro Cactus grow.  It is interesting when you look at the mountains from a distance, you don’t really see the cactus, but when you get closer, it is a forest of them.  

The cacti grow from the top.  Some grow arms, some do not.  They don’t really know why.   In speaking to a worker at the visitor center, it seems they still have alot to learn.  They have theories, but some of the information is hard to gather.  

The West Side of the park has 1.4 million Saguaros, the East side has 450,000.  The difference is that on the east side many were cut down before it became a National Park.  So on the East side they have very old ones or very young ones.  This does help with their studies.  

When the Saguaro reproduce, there are thousands of seeds, but very few actually grow, something like 1 in 1,000.  

The Saguaro are very slow growing.  It takes between 5-10 years for them to grow 1 inch tall from the seed and actually see them.   2 feet tall they are 20-45 years old.  They get a little faster as they age, as 6 feet is 35-70 years. 

The Saguaros do flower, but not until they are 35-65 years old.  

If they do grow branches (arms) they are 50-100 years old before that starts.  They definitely seem to be a slow and steady species.  

Most are somewhere between 15-30+ feet, but that takes 100-150 years, which is the majority of the Saguaro’s life span.  They say very few live over 200 years and reach a height of 50 feet.  

We did see some “skeletons” of the saguaro and even that is quite interesting looking.

While at Saguaro we enjoyed a hike that went along a cactus forest.  I never realized just how many different types of cacti there are.  It was interesting to see the various shapes and sizes.  The trail then went up to the ridge and you could see Saguaros for miles.  

Enjoy some pics.

Height reference.  I am 5’4”

To us this looked like a monster screaming with his teeth showing and arms outstretched

Sunset

There is a nest in this hole

This is what a cross section of a Saguaro looks like

These were one of my favorite, it was a tree base with cactus “limbs”

These were barrel cacti. Their “flower” looked like pineapples

This is a cool pic Dave took one evening when the moon was not quire full but very bright.  If you look closely you can also see some stars.

Tomorrow we head to Joshua Tree.

Til next time.