Old As The War of 1812

 Good Morning Arizona!!!  Shocking weather we are having here.  I almost had to put shorts on yesterday!!  By 8:00 I was roasting and opted for a short sleeve shirt!!  Sadly I can't say the same for my   OTHER town that is expecting rain for the next four days straight, which will melt a good portion of that snow in the Sierras and flood everyone again.  I think my place is out of the way, but I'm saying my prayers just in case.  

There was a little dancing taking place in my Tucson back yard, a rare sight to see.  This is a young roadrunner, only about 12 inches long tip to tail.  It's funny how they run flat, then they raise they head and tail for a look see ... then back down to sneak along the ground.

One bad thing ... they are meat eaters.  Babies in nests are never safe.

Determined to get out and about in between quilts, I headed out to the Saguaro National Park.  Old as the War of 1812?  Not me, though sometimes I feel like it, but the saguaros.  

Sadly, they don't allow pets, so Cooper had to stay home.  I can't believe how crowded it was, not that I require a parking space.  I just drive right on through with my Senior National Park Pass.  Luckily I picked that up when they were free many moons ago.

It's a one way 8 mile trip around the park, with lots of ups and downs, followed by sharp turns.  Every so often there are places to pull over and park to view the expanse of saguaro cacti.  I however, was after the flowers.  With all the rain and snow, followed by a few good days of sun, I expected to see quite a few.

I was wrong of course.  I had to really look for them, except for these.  Our elevation here is around 4,000 feet give or take, and it's not been warm enough yet.

I stopped at my usual spots and walked out into the desert.  There are no trails in this section, so be careful where you step.  If scorpions are out, the snakes might be too.

The clouds put on quite a show for me.  As Patty mentioned a few days ago, it's interesting how the trees and saguaros seems to be growing together a lot.  I'm guessing it's because the wind blew the seeds around until they hit the saguaro and fell to the ground.  

These are just babies ... a little over 70 years old.  It takes that long for them to get approximately 6 feet tall and begin to flower and form arms.  All the growth is at the tip of the cactus.  

So as you drive through this park, imagine just how long those saguaros have been hanging out here.  After 100 years of standing out in the desert, they will have several arms.  

Some of these are over 200 years old.  Pretty amazing to think about them just being tiny when the War of 1812 was fought.  There may have been a few Indians around this area, but certainly nothing else.  A 40' tall saguaro will weight in at about 4500 pounds when it's well watered by the rain.

They are also protected here.  Don't dig one up and haul it to your house without a specific permit, or you will go to jail.

Heading up higher on the East side you will see a spring coming down the mountain on this zig zag course.  You can barely see the water, but it's rushing along so fast you can actually hear it from across the wash.  

Another little fact ... saguaros have one tap root that goes down only about 2 feet.  The rest stay less then 6 inches below the soil and grow out as far as the cactus is tall.  The holes that birds nest in become surrounded by woody material.  Those were cut out and used by the Indians as water containers before canteens were invented.  

It creek ends up here in the bottom where I had to drive across it.  In fact, there were two creeks that had water crossing the road.  I've never seen anything but dry creek beds here.

Obviously the saguaros are well protected by their spines.  Needle sharp and hard like steel, these things are not fun to bump into.

There was a little more exploring, but I won't inundate you with pictures today.  That will happen tomorrow! 

TODAY I'm trying out a new recipe for burnt ends (the best part of barbecue) ala Elva.  I don't have any idea how it will turn out ..... it's an EXPERIMENT!!!  Tune in tomorrow for the results.