Arizona Again!
RIgby at our campsite at McDowell Mountain Regional Park - It’s a lot greener than we remembered!
The Sonoran Desert
Oh what fun this place is. So many cool (well - “warm!”) things about it. Sunshine; biking; sunshine; hiking; sunshine… yeah, you get the idea.
We got Rigby serviced up in Flagstaff a few weeks ago and since then we’ve been bopping around the Phoenix and Tucson areas, checking out lots of dispersed camping and some great campgrounds as well. First up was McDowell Mountain Regional Park (above), one of our favorite places from last time we were here, and it certainly did not disappoint this time. (we ended up returning twice for a total of 3 visits this trip). It has some of the best mountain biking we’ve found yet in Arizona.
That’s Shannon riding McDowell’s Escondido Trail above.
McDowell has some really good hiking as well. It is located roughly an hour northwest of Phoenix, just past Fountain Hills.
Hiking the “Scenic Trail” at McDowell.
Dia De Los Muertos
But soon we hit the road again and headed for Tucson. There were some Day of the Dead celebrations that we were super excited to participate in. We figured we’d street camp outside of the event center somewhere but everywhere we looked just didn’t seem right. We figured we would probably get “the knock”. So because it was starting to get really dark, we reluctantly went back to a county park we’d passed just north of Tucson, and stayed there for the night.
While we were there we started to fine tune our plans for the event the next day, and suddenly it didn’t look all that great after all. Lots of ways to spend money and not a lot in return, so we blew the whole thing off at the last minute and went up Mount Lemmon instead.
The foothills of Mount Lemmon are covered with Saguaro and Prickly Pear cactus
Tucson is about 2,500 feet above sea level, and just north of it, Mount Lemmon rises up to 9,100 feet. We found a dispersed camping area for 3 nights up at about 8,300 feet, so not quite the top of the peaks, but way above the Saguaro and into a conifer forest (with conifer forest temperatures!) so it was a lot colder up there.
We actually used our diesel heater at this site
After becoming sufficiently chilled, we returned to west Tucson to Gilbert Ray Campground to warm up and get in some more biking & hiking before heading to Indian Bread Rocks, which is a little over an hour east of Tucson via the interstate.
Free dispersed camping on BLM land at Indian Bread Rocks, just south of Bowie, AZ
We were going to go see Chircahua National Monument as well but we got itching for some more biking, so instead we headed back north to Phoenix.
Sonoran Desert Flora
So I’ve mentioned sunshine and desert biking & hiking - but one thing I absolutely love about this area is the cactus and other desert plants. For someone who was in the latter half of his sixth decade in life before ever really experiencing it, they are quite amazing and very beautiful.
Saguaro cactus, roughly 12 -15 feet in height
Saguaro (suh-WAH-roh) is the iconic “tree” whose image has become nearly synonymous with the word “desert”. One look at Saguaro and you’re thinking “hot and dry”. This cactus can go for extended periods without water, and then when it does rain, the cactus swells up a bit to retain water for the next long dry spell ahead.
I always assumed they were made up of a wet, fleshy center like a cucumber (they look similar to a cucumber in some ways), but they actually have a wooden skeleton inside that looks like a series of dowels, and they are very strong. Like a tree! Who knew?
At right, you can see one that died a while ago, but its hard wood skeleton is still standing, and at the bottom you can see some remnants of the "fleshy" part that has not yet withered completly away.
Saguaro are extremely slow-growing compared to most of the trees I’m familiar with. The prominent one in the photo above is likely 75 to 100 years old.
Teddy Bear Cholla
Cholla (CHOY-uh)
There are many varieties of Cholla - this one is Teddy Bear Cholla, and though it may look super cute and huggable, we don’t advise doing so. It’s also known as “Jumping Cholla” because it will literally jump at the chance to assert its personal space boundaries. Get too close, and you’ll be pulling thorns.
We’ve learned to carry a pair of long-nosed pliers when we hike or bike in the desert.
Saguaro and Cholla are my favorites but here are some others I’m sharing because they’re pretty cool too:
And finally some others we saw at Tucson’s Desert Museum - I don’t know the name of all of them; I just like looking at them:
And a very nice side benefit of this desert excursion was letting Rigby dry out completely, through and through. It got quite wet and musty with all the condensation in the pacific northwest rain last winter. This trip was just what we needed!