SAGUARO

Being from Tennessee, I thought a cactus only grew to be a few inches tall. Enter the Saguaro.

This park is named for the Saguaro Cacti that live there. Fun fact: did you know a saguaro is 95-100 years old before it starts to produce its first am?! (mind blown) I didn’t even realize cacti got that old! As I mentioned earlier, I thought cacti only grew to be several inches to a foot tall; however, these amazing beasts can grow for hundreds of years to reach over 40 feet tall! In the National Park, you will find several reaching tall heights with many arms branching off and growing toward the blue sky. They are truly amazing creatures.

I would recommend this park as a fun place to spend a day at, offering many short hikes and an easy, short drive through the park. The roads in the park were all well maintained, dirt roads. The trails were also dirt trails. You should definitely expect to do some sweating while visiting this National Park; Saguaro National Park is how I imagined all of Arizona would be: a hot desert.

There is so much more than just cacti to view here. Several species of cacti grow throughout the park. The Arizona bird, the Cactus Wren can be seen flying atop the cacti eating the Arizona flower, the Saguaro blooms. We saw lizards galore running around and by the walking trails. Luckily we did not encounter any scorpions or rattle snakes, although both can be found in the park.

While we were visiting Saguaro, we stayed on BLM land nearby!