Day Three - 3/26 - Saguaro East and Kartchner Caverns, AZ and on to New Mexico

I woke up at about 4AM to the sounds of a pack of coyotes howling. Who knows how close or far away they were - sounds seem to travel far in the desert. At about 6AM the howls were much closer and woke Juju up. She didn't think they were quite as cool as I did.

And this is why we love camping! Look at the scenery you get to wake up to! The Tuscon Mountain Park was a great place to camp. (Sometimes I'll throw it bits of what would seem like extraneous info because I looked at people's blogs to get an idea of places and I would like to return the favor!)


Juju and Maya played horses, jumping over little cacti, and found an old structure to use as a fine "barn". Then it was time to head out to the Saguaro National Forest on the eastern side of Tuscon, in the Rincon Mountain area.

We went for a short hike. Juju spotted this cactus and especially liked it because she said it looked like it might be in the middle of reading something, but had turned to look at her. We all got to learn a lot about desert life, plants and the saguaro. These "eye holes" were made by birds to create nests - they peck out holes and the saguaro heals itself, and creates a room for the bird and it's nest. The bird gets to enjoy an air conditioned nest since the saguaro's tissues are filled with water and keep it cool in there.



A big old saguaro doing a many-armed hula dance?

We had reserved tickets for a Kartchner Caverns tour so we had to leave this lovely place and move on farther east, just south of Benson, AZ. The winds were starting to pick up and our little Prius was getting blown around a bit.

We couldn't take photos at Kartchner - the rangers are really particular about what you take into the caverns since they are trying to protect the formations, all of which are still active. We got to take a tour of the Rotunda and Throne Rooms. The formations were fabulous, and we all got a good dose of geology. J and M were less nervous than I thought they would be about going underground for over an hour, and they ended up really enjoying the tour. If you want to check it out, here's the Caverns' web site: http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/

And on to New Mexico! Our destination is Rockhound State Park, an area where Juju and Maya can hunt for minerals/gems. Hey Dougy, check out this BOGO we found in a small town on our way...









Got to Rockhound and it was blowing!!! No tent for us - we'd wind up on the top of the rocks. Options? This place was too cool to drive away from and stay in a box. Decided to deal with it later and go for a sunset hike.




Good night!