According to Dan, I have a thing for deserts. Apparently, every time we enter one, I express my admiration in one way or another. I am not sure this is universally true – I don’t really want to live in a desert – but I sure did like Saguaro. Saguaro (sa-WAR-row) National Park acts like a pair of parentheses embracing the east and west sides of Tucson, AZ. Both sides of the park are relatively small. Together they amount to less than 92,000 acres, compare that to Rocky Mountain NP at about 250,000 acres or Yosemite at 750,000 acres.
Saguaro is cool for many reasons, the most obvious one being the parks namesake, the saguaro cactus. It was weirdly thrilling to see the saguaro make their appearance along Interstate 10 – like seeing the old west rise up to challenge the 21st century. The saguaro acts like a tree, visually anchoring the desert landscape and providing food and shelter for birds that can navigate its fluted spines. But unlike trees, saguaro cacti look distinct from one another in a way trees can’t – masked by a cover of leaves. Some are armless, some have two to three arms, some have 5 or more. Some have lots of nooks carved into them by the Gila woodpecker, some are pristine. During our hikes this past year we have often stopped to marvel at a spectacular tree, but rarely do we stop to laugh at one. Saguaro made me laugh as often as they made me wonder – almost creature-like with personality.
We arrived in Saguaro on Monday evening after our Phoenix stop which included great visits with both Dan’s cousin Dave and my cousin Emily and their respective families. On Tuesday Dan and I snuck out for a sunrise hike through the desert. It was a beautiful, quiet morning and we were treated to an early spring sampling of the wildflowers that will dominate the landscape in March and April. After the hike, we planned to spend part of the day visiting the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with the girls. The museum, on the southern edge of the park, was billed as part zoo, part botanical garden, part museum and we budgeted 2-3 hours for the visit. We ended up staying the entire day. The museum was excellent with live raptor displays, interesting exhibits, cactus gardens, an art gallery and a live animal presentation and discussion featuring both a rattlesnake and gila monster. The latter should have been billed as a comedy show – the presenters were funny in a dry, snake handling kind of way. Our favorite anecdote was a description of who gets bitten by rattlesnakes. About 25% of bites in Arizona are accidental – folks gardening, going to the mailbox, etc. The other 75% occur when, according to the presenter, people make “poor life choices.” Of that 75%, the majority of the bites (85%) are inflicted upon intoxicated men between the ages of 18-37. We were almost in tears by the end of the rattlesnake exhibit – some of the anecdotes were so funny. Gosh people can be stupid.
On Wednesday we did a few “hobble hikes.” Hikes with very short trails that Ava can crutch or we can navigate a wheelchair through. The highlight of the day though was visiting Teresa and Larry Burchfield. Teresa “Little T” Beardsley Burchfield was the marketing, sales, jack of all trades guru for my dad’s airshow company back in the day. After my dad died, Little T and her late husband Big B (Bill) propped me up through my first adventure in business leadership. And I do mean propped me up. I am sure I had some emerging managerial skills, but nothing prepares a 22-year-old to run a family business amidst personal tragedy. Big B and Little T kept the wheels on the proverbial bus (or in our case the wings on the plane) and graciously let me think I was making all the tough decisions! Oh, the stories I could tell. We spent a wonderful afternoon and evening catching up, getting to know Larry, whom we had never met, and generally enjoying great company.
We put Saguaro NP and Tucson in our rear-view mirror on Thursday, headed east on I-10, White Sands here we come!
