2013 Thanksgiving Tucson Trip Final and Round up
January 01, 2014
It's already 2014 and I haven't finished the final section of our 2013 Thanksgiving Tucson Trip. Things just got a little busy.
For the blog postings so far of our trip:
Day five was Thanksgiving day. We decided it would be a good day to drive around Tucson and explore some of the neighborhoods. We explored and headed north to Ora Valley and the settlement of Oracle. Then we headed west across the desert plains on Park Ridge road to the I-10. Park Link Road has a splendid view of the Pichacho Peak with some saguoros in the foreground.
We headed to the West side of the Saguoro National Park, explored a bit, and decided to explore the Hugh Norris trail. This is a great hike (although at our fitness level, we waddled rather than hiked.)
The trail winds up through the saguoro groves. We spent a lot of time taking photos. Here are some:
Kevin taking pictures as we followed the trail.
I loved the shapes the saguoro's made against the sky.
We were lucky with the light, as the sun started to sink towards the horizon. I loved the way these giants were back lit.
During our hike we heard a noise. We turned and looked down at a red tailed hawk with a large wriggling snake. Gave me the heebie jeebies. (Yes, yes, I know. Snakes are all part of the great circle of life! Yes I know that they are great for the environment. But I just can't abide them.)
Ahh the shapes! The light! Gorgeous!
Saguoros are so slow growing. This huge giant must be a couple of hundred of years old. Amazing.
The next day, the day after Thanksgiving was our departure day. We really didn't have much time before we had to get to the airport, return our car, and catch our flight back to Denver (via Phoenix.) We drove to east Saguro National Park, but really ran out of time. A pity.
In the five days that we had to spare for Tucson, we certainly jammed a lot in. The days were pretty short, so we found that we ran out of light quickly. I am glad we decided to visit Tucson, and give it a thorough explore. Flying down, and spending all the time in Tucson meant that we really took our time to see as much as we could. There is still much more that we didn't get to see. Perhaps that will be for the next trip?