The Rest of Tucson

Stadelman and I took Bowen's Trail into the desert behind the JW Marriot. It's a narrow, rocky path in Tucson Mountain Park. At about 16" wide, the trail made it all too likely that we'd pick up a thorn or two from one of these guys.



Definitely worth the walk though, for vistas like the ones below.

One thing that really impressed me about the trail were the rocks. They are completely uneroded. They look like they are freshly chipped off bigger rocks, sharp edges and all. And, they're tough to walk on. There's no dirt to hold them still, just more, smaller rocks. And then some smaller ones than that, all the way down to sharp rocks about 1/8" across. Too big for sand and nowhere near dirt.

That's Tucson in the very far distance, below.

The saguaros are pretty amazing, ranging from little prickly bumps to 40 foot tall multi-armed monsters. Supposedly, people hijack wild saguaros for their desert gardens - beyond me how they'd pick up and move something with that many thorns.

Another oddity was the lack of wild life. In the hour and a half we were on this trail, the only creatures we saw or heard were birds, and very few of them. No snakes, spiders (I was hoping for a wild taratula, no luck darn it!), coyotes, nothing. Very unlike home.

Pricky pear. If you're desperately and have a long knife, you can get moisture out of them. I'll pass.

And, in closing, a nice backlit saguaro, with lens flare:

January 25, 2011