Wow…not sure we have ever spent this many days in a row with both warm temps and lack of clouds! We were raised near Buffalo and most of our adult life was spent in Rochester NY where cloudy, gray days are just a way of life. We have enjoyed the sun and blue skies so much. This was one of the principal reasons we planned so much time in the Southwest.
Saguaro National Park – The city of Tucson splits Saguaro National Park into 2 halves…East and West. We spent a lot of time in both areas of the park as there are miles and miles of desert hiking trails ranging from “wheelchair” to “impossible”. We took a NP Ranger led hike to a mine that was very informative and gave us a lot of insight into some of the nuances of the desert landscape. We are big fans of these Ranger led tours. The NP Ranger corps is an interesting mix of folks with fascinating backgrounds that are usually passionate about what they do. We learned much about how the park was formed, early settlers, the life of a saguaro cactus and many other facts about life in the desert. In addition to the National Park, there were many trails that ran from our campground out into the desert and hills that surrounded us. A visit to the Sonoran Desert Museum near the West Saguaro park area was a whole day affair. Coyotes, javelina, every snake that inhabits the area, lizards, and several aviary areas were so interesting as well as all of the magnificent desert gardens. It was a large museum and covering acres and acres of land. Most of the museum was outdoors as an added bonus. Fantastic!
Pima Air and Space Museum – This museum in Tucson is second largest aircraft collection in the country (with the Smithsonian as the largest). Great tour by tram around the site with a former Marine Corps pilot with knew his stuff inside and out. Lots of WWII, Korean, Vietnam era planes as well as some commercial planes and helicopters thrown in. There were hangers and hangers of planes and the history of flight in the US. Both of us really enjoyed this event.
Other sights – A day spent in Sabino Canyon was most interesting and one of the more difficult hikes that we had. LOL…A cursory review of the hike through the canyon should of raised some flags but unfortunately a lesson learned. We took the tram to the top of the canyon and decided to take the “walk” down. Did not really realize until it was too late that there was still a difficult hike up, followed by a 2000 foot descent over about 6 miles. We made it but the trail combined in equal parts a very rocky, narrow trail, with hair-raising, death-defying precipices along the way. The views were absolutely stunning but a good part of the hike was spent looking at our feet to make sure we did not stumble and go over the edge. A martini and a cold beer back at our site helped ease some of the aches from that bit of exercise!
We spent some time in Tucson itself, an easy city to get around and become familiar with…mostly looking for some RV parts but also had a lovely outdoor patio dinner under some lights at a cool Mexican place with great margaritas.
All in all…not a bad place to spend a week in January!
SEB
