Tucson: Feb. 10 – 23: Visitors!

We were excited to have family visit us. Our two daughters and our new grandbaby stayed with us in our fifth wheel. The girls have camped with us since they were wee, and we’ve spent time with them in small alpine huts when they were older, so it wasn’t difficult to squeeze them in, it just involved a bit of planning and rearranging. The two month old baby adapted well. The weather was cooler and wetter than normal, but still very usable. We visited the gardens at Tohono Chul on the first full day they were here. Our youngest daughter took plenty of pictures.

We got a good view of the thunderclouds over the desert trail.

The next day, was clear and a bit cooler than normal. We took them on the Picture Wash hike.

Notice how this saguaro seems to be growing right out of the rock! It must have roots that reach down to the ground.

At our snack break, Doug entertained the baby, while Wendy tried to keep the little one in the shade.

Next event was a full day at the Desert Museum. At the morning “Raptor Free Flight” this Ferruginous hawk took off from its perch sooner than Wendy expected, but she was very happy with the resulting photo. Sometimes we could feel the rush of air as the birds skimmed over our heads.

Now that we knew that a good photo could be taken with an iPhone, we kept trying. In the afternoon session, Doug captured this great photo of a Barn owl,

and Wendy took this photo of a Harris’s hawk.

The next day, we had time to get another short hike in before their evening flight. We walked right from our place to a prominent rock on the approach to Panther Peak.

Here’s our posed shot on the way up, right beside our favourite chollas.

A few days later, we had friends from Canada visit. We showed them one of our favourite hikes in Saguaro National Park. We hiked up the Hugh Norris trail past a couple of viewpoints, then turned around. The view on the way back was just as good or better than on the way up. The Avra valley is in the background.

Close to the end of our hike, we saw a snake stretched across the trail just in front of us. It slithered under a bush and Doug was able to use the zoom function on his iPhone to capture this photo of the Diamondback rattlesnake.

A few days later, we made a full day trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The monument was a two and a half hour drive southwest and is close to the Mexican border. After picking up information at the Visitor Center, we headed out to drive the Ajo Mountain loop. Arch Canyon hike, which was part way along the 34 km one-way drive, looked interesting. Here’s a view of the two arches from the start of the trail. The improved trail ended just around the corner of the ridge on the right.

There was a “social” trail that continued upwards. It was steep, and part of the trail was on bedrock, but the rock was very grippy. There were some steps that required us to use our hands, and we found it quite enjoyable. Here is a photo of Wendy at the viewpoint.

On our way back, we took the trail to the arch. Wendy was happy to look out from the top of the ridge. Doug followed a faint trail down, then scrambled upwards so he was able to walk through the lower arch. Here’s a view of the arch from underneath it.

He walked through the arch and down a bit to get this view. Organ Pipe cactus is in the foreground.

Organ Pipe cactus is mostly found in Mexico and in very few places in the United States. It can’t handle frost and often grows on south facing rocky slopes, so the rock will radiate heat and help it stay warmer on the cooler nights.

After our long day to Organ Pipe Cactus NM, we took it easy. Then we had a few days of cooler and rainy weather. (Wendy went to a quilt show on one of those days.) So by the time we were riding our bikes again, we were fairly rested. We ended up riding “The Loop” from our regular starting place in Marana, all the way to Catalina State Park, which was a bit over 43 km total and took us just under three hours.

We want to conclude this post with a scenic photo. The day before our long ride, it had rained most of the day, but it cleared in the late afternoon. We headed out for a walk on the neighbourhood roads just when the light was perfect. On the left is Panther Peak, and the bigger one in the middle is Sombrero, which we wrote about in the last post.

We’ve caught up enough on our posts for awhile. Perhaps we’ll put one together next week, but we’ll see how things go. Until then…