Thus bloodied, I advanced on Tucson. I hadn‘t slept well and required Exile on Main Street and Sleater Kinney to keep me awake on the two hour drive over two lane highway - speed limit 65 MPH - largely through Tohono O'odham Nation. I arrived at Saguaro National Park about noon and headed to the Visitors Center to inquire about campgrounds and learned that the park has no campgrounds. This had somehow escaped me. Surely I had that information on me, probably in three different places, but it never occurred to me to check. All national parks have campgrounds! This park closes at sunset, another odd concept, made necessary, one deduces, by its proximity to Tucson.
So I retreated to Gilbert Ray Campground, ten miles outside the park, and that proved good enough for three nights. My site overlooked a wash thick with mesquite, ironwood and palo verde. Sounds of daytime traffic were punctuated by gunfire from a nearby “shooting sector“, but the nights were quiet except for when the coyotes went wild.
Saguaro National Park is divided into two segments, one on either side of the city, and I was at the smaller, lower elevation, western segment. This was home to the world's most extensive stand of Saguaro cactus, though frankly these seemed less healthy and impressive than those at Organ Pipe or White Tanks. I hiked what seemed like a long flight of stairs to Wasson Peak, the highest point in the western segment. Fodors calls it one of the best hikes in the west, though they must be referring only to those hikes with climax views over urban sprawl. (At least Tucson's air wasn't filthy.) Still, it was a good hike, particularly so close to a city. 30 or so "seniors" were gathered at the top when I arrived, way more than I've ever seen on Tiger Mountain. It was a humid day and pleasantly overcast, like New Jersey in June.
The saguaro may not have been impressive but the agave were great - I began to think of the trail as Agave Way - as were the enormous ocotillo, with an isolated flower here and there auguring spring. Tan rocks I took for granite. Big silver rectangles I took for solar reflectors but were tubs of water evaporating in the desert sun, piped from Lake Havasu to Tucson courtesy of the Central Arizona Project, .
On my way down I was slowly gaining on two women ahead of me on the trail when they suddenly veered off on a side trail and started ascending toward a lesser peak. God bless 'em I thought, climbing an extra peak after what was already a 10-mile round trip hike. They were scrambling up and I was gliding down so I quickly closed on them at which point they clarified the situation. They were going up this hill to avoid a huge rattlesnake positioned right on the trail in the shadow of one of the steps. I got close enough to see it (but well beyond its striking range) and IT WAS RILED! Coiled up, head reared back, tongue lashing, rattling for all it was worth. A formidable animal (though roadrunners kill and eat them). As I scrambled behind the women along their detour, I mentioned I was lucky they were ahead of me, as I was moving quickly with my mind who know's where. Would I have spotted it? They assured me it was making a lot of noise and would have been hard to miss. On the other hand they were quite happy to have me lead the rest of the way down the trail.
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The afternoon grew increasingly humid. It felt like it could rain, though with temperatures like that who cared? In fact rain began that night and continued for two days. For the most part it was a gentle rain with temperatures in the sixties - really quite pleasant. I went out to spend the day in Tucson and it started raining a lot harder and in no time all the intersections were flooding. They have washes crossing many of their roads with signs saying don't cross if underwater, so I cut my city tour short to get back to the campground lest I got stranded.
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