Desert Flowers of Saguaro National Park
Being so close to so many amazing hiking zones, we often have a hard time picking one to do. We have been doing a ton of hiking in the Santa Catalina Mountains and Mount Lemmon and haven’t dabbled in some of the hikes in Saguaro National Park. We ended this streak with an adventure into the western region of the park. We picked Wasson Mountain to explore. This hike goes up to a peak with 306-degree views of the city, the desert, and Saguaro National Park. Little did we know we would be walking into a massive bloom of familiar and new desert flowers for us to discover. Follow our journey as we pass 80,000 miles of travel since we started the Live Rad and Travel lifestyle!
Mile: 80,022
Quote of the Blog: “A flower blooming in the desert proves to the world that adversity, no matter how significant, can be overcome.” - Matshona Dhliwayo
Song of the Blog: “Wildflowers” - Tom Petty
Saguaro National Park is divided into two sections. There is no other national park that is separated like this. The eastern half sits on the eastern side of Tucson, while the western half is slightly northwest of downtown Tucson. Both areas are covered in some of the biggest and more awe inspiring cacti in the world. We hiked in the eastern zone when we first came down to Arizona a couple of years ago. We did drive through the western half and even got to check out some of the petroglyphs the area has to offer. This time, we picked a nice summit hike that would take us about 7 miles to complete. Our adventure started with some sweaty palms. Right as we were coming into the park area, we discovered that we had forgotten Amity’s ID that she needed to confirm our National Park Pass was ours. Luckily for us, they do not check for your park pass at a stand and only require you to display it on your dash at parking spots. Mini-crisis averted! Once at the trailhead, we grabbed the last parking spot in the lot. This back-to-back win gave us the stoke we needed for a great day of hiking in the desert. We set off to bag another peak.
The trail gradually gained some elevation as we walked through a wash. We passed an old desert dwelling from centuries past surrounded by some of the tallest Saguaros we have seen. Pretty amazing to conceptualize living here and being among the first people settling in this area. After taking some pictures and exploring the building, we continued up to a ridge line trail that would begin to push the elevation and the workout. As we continued up the hike, we began to see a couple familiar flowers blooming. The Brittle Bush flowers were displaying their yellow blooms brightly, and we even saw some Lupine and Fairy Dusters that made us feel really smart for knowing several of these desert flowers. They were just the beginning of our floral experience. As we climbed up, we saw Blue Dicks, Distant Phacelia, Ocotillo flowers, Mexican Poppies, Creosote Bush flowers, and Arizona Jewel Flowers. Thank you, iPhone, for helping us identify flowers as we hiked! Our favorites were a toss-up between the bright red Ocotillo flowers and the Pink Fairy Dusters.
As we crested to the top of the mountain, we came to a false summit. We took some pictures there before continuing on to the top. The final portion of the hike took us along this beautiful ridgeline from the false summit to the real one. We encountered a couple groups at the summit, but it was still overall empty of people. It always blows us away that half a million people live so close, and none of the hiking trails we have done have been remotely busy. We enjoyed our lunch and the views before starting to make our way off the peak and back to the car. As we were leaving, we found a sign-in book in a metal box. We made sure to mark it “Live Rad and Travel Was Here!” We also tagged it with some fresh Live Rad and Travel stickers we just got made. As we made our way down the trail, the flowers continued to impress us. At one point we were watching a hummingbird flying around an Ocotillo cactus and its flowers. I happened to have my GoPro out and was just pointing and shooting at the bird as it flew around the back flowers of the plant. As I stood there, the bird must have known the assignment, because it flew right up to the flowers no more than 3 feet away from me and right in front of the camera. After a couple moments of drinking nectar from the flowers right there, it flew off. Amity and I were completely silent until the bird flew off, and we both let out a celebratory yell and a couple “Oh My God” exclamations! Even if the footage turned out to not be perfect, the moment was, and that’s all that matters!
The hike continued for a few more miles through the Saguaro forest, passed another ruined dwelling before we got to one of our favorite hiking views, the car! We were now one of the last cars left in the lot. The sun was beginning to set. As we drove out of the park, the entire eastern front of the mountains we were just hiking in began to light up orange with alpine glow from the sunset. This beautiful sight was only made better with the gigantic cacti littering the mountainside. Arizona sunsets are amazing, and this one took it to a whole new level! We will be back to take this all in again! The next day we completed an amazing weekend with a round of golf at Pusche Ridge Golf Course. We have played here before, and it has become our favorite course in the area. The price is on the lower end, and the views are some of the best we have seen from a golf course. Weekends like this only stoke the adventure flame! When we had first gone into the western half of the park two years ago, we had kind of written it off as a sub-prime national park zone. Now that we have had some real time to explore the area, this zone is ALL TIME! They say in the desert one will find themselves, lose themselves, and completely connect with nature. This could not have been clearer with this hike! With dozens of trails we have yet to touch, we will have a tough time being able to Live Rad and hike them all before we have to leave in May, but you know we are going to try!
