Hiking the Nature Trail at Catalina Park

Catalina State Park has some great trails for hiking.  The one we chose is the Nature Trail.  It's a 3 mile wake from our camp site to the Natural Trail and back.  We picked a warm and sunny day.

It was only a few hundred yards on the trail before we stopped to snap a photo of the Catalina Mountains in the distance.

The desert was quiet except for the four or five birds that were chirping and cooing and making their regular morning greetings to each other.

The saguaro cactus is a monument to itself.  This old beauty is several hundred years old.

The trail began near our campsite and meandered through the wash to the trail head where we took the turn up the hill marked "Nature Trail."

There were a few signs telling of the indigenous animals including this display and info about the mountain lion.  Yikes!  We were ok without a personal appearance...

Years from now we will remember this selfie among the many we have taken over the years.  

The signs appeared to mostly be new and made of sturdy metal.  The information on them told the story of the of the creatures living in the area.

The mark of a well done display is enough information to explain things and hit the highlights.  These markers accomplished that.  I didn't care about the latin name of the desert dwellers or the biological history of the palo verde tree.  I just want the common name of the flora and fauna and maybe a few tidbits.

From the top of the Nature Trail, we could see the Catalina's in the distance and the rest of the beautiful scenery.

It was great day to go for hike.  Hopefully there will be more to follow.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Deadwood Trails in the Cactus Forest

We love to hike.  Fortunately there are many ways to do it.  We fit into the recreational, casual category.  We enjoy getting out and taking a easy walk through different places.  It helps us appreciate nature and gives us some badly needed exercise.

I couldn't wait to get over to our nearest National Park (we are at Davis-Monthan AFB campground) and take a hike through the desert.

Pam put together some sandwiches, we got some water bottles and our walking sticks and made our way over to Saguaro East.  We have been on these trails every time we have visited Tucson.

This particular one was the Mica View trail that is hard-packed and disability accessible.  Not sure that is a word but wheelchairs can roll on this portion.

 We went down that the path for a while,  found a joining trail and continued on.

I found myself stopping and say, "Wow -- look at this view!"  Its not like I had never seen the desert or cacti before.  Or this was the first time we'd been hiking on a beautiful, warm, calm day in the desert.  The first trail we took was aptly named the Mica View.

This huge one Saguaro was really something to look at.

From their we joined up with the Cactus Forest trail.  We have been out here on previous visits to Tucson but I have never really stopped and thought about "Cactus Forest".  I don't know who coined that term but it is quite remarkable.  And this area has a lot of big Saguaros which are magnificent all by themselves, let alone in the midst of hundreds of other ones.

A couple of days later, we returned and went on another hike a little later in the day on some different trails:  Shantz, Pink Hill and Loma Verde Wash.  This time we went after lunch in the heat of the day. It was mid-70's.  It was beautiful and hot.

This time I noticed the wood ribs of decayed cactus that were scattered near the trail.  

There were lots of dead and decaying wood from the cactus near the trail.  And this gem in the middle of a young green tree, and an old dead one.  All kinds of variations of life among the cactus and desert trees.

I guess I was most impressed with the 'wood' laying around the once used to be Cholla or Saguaro cacti.  This one was in a class by itself.

We didn't go on a long hike, but long enough for us until we get more miles under our feet and used to the heat.

From here later this morning we go up the road to Catalina State Park.  Hopefully we can hike some more of those trails again.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!