Along with cowboy boots and 10 gallon hats the Saguaro cactus is an enduring symbol of the old west. A visit to the 92,000 acres of Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona gives you an up close and personal view of a massive concentration of these “Sentinels of the Desert.”
Let’s take care of the pronunciation first so we don’t butcher the name like I did at the Park Headquarters. It is pronounced “suh-whar-oh” – the “whar” rhymes with “tar”. The Saguaro is the largest cacti species in the U.S. and is only found in the Sonoran Desert at elevations below 4000 feet (they can’t handle the frost). Saguaro National Park is split between an east and a west district with the city of Tucson lying right in the middle. Driving between the two districts takes a little more than an hour, so if you have limited time concentrate on just one district.
The area became a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994 and the gorgeous scenery includes mountains and rock formations and forests of pine and cactus. That’s right, “forests” of cactus.
Link to a map of Saguaro National Park
The Sonoran Desert covers parts of Arizona and California, Northwestern Mexico, and much of Baja Mexico. This is Saguaro cactus country and there is no better place to see Saguaros in such concentrations than inside the Saguaro National Park and the adjacent Tucson Mountain Park. It is truly amazing to wander through a forest of these giant cacti.
The park has more than 165 miles of hiking trails in the park’s two districts with hikes geared to all levels. The hiking trail heads are well marked and maps are found at any visitor center.
According to the National Park Service, the tallest Saguaro recorded was 78 feet tall. A Saguaro cactus that tall was probably well over 200 years old. Because the Saguaro consists largely of water an adult saguaro can weigh up to 8 tons.
The Saguaro grows slow and steady – it might take 8 years or more to grow a foot. The growth rate speeds up a bit and by 50 years the Saguaro might reach 10 feet. But with a lifespan of up to 250 years these things can get pretty big.
Flower production begins at 35 years of age, and the arms normally appear at 50 to 70 years of age. The cactus is considered adult when it is 125 years old.
The tiny beginnings of a new arm sprouts from an adult cactus.
In mid May the Saguaro blooms. The buds stay tightly closed in the heat of the day and then the bright flowers burst open at night. Each bud opens once and closes the next day never to open up again. The powerfully fragrant Saguaro bloom is the state flower of Arizona.
After the blooms close, they mature into red fruit. A Saguaro can produce upwards of one hundred fruit in a season and each fruit can contain over 2,000 seeds. A single Saguaro can produce several million seeds in a lifetime.
The ripe fruit are a food bonanza for the desert animals and insects and the members of the indigenous Tohono O’Odham people who make syrup, jam and ceremonial alcohol from the fruit. The harvesting of saguaro fruit by the Tohono O’odham is a centuries-old practice that the government wisely allowed to continue after the land was turned over to the Parks Department.
800 year old artwork by the Hohokam. Food and sun were understandably prominent themes.
There are also petroglyphs to be found within the park. Most of the rock carvings in the park belong to the prehistoric Hohokam people who lived in the region from A.D. 200 to 1450.
In the western district of the park on the packed dirt Bajada Scenic Loop road you can drive to the Signal Hill Trail Head. From the parking lot it is a short hike leading to the top of a hill where you will find a collection of rocks with petroglyphs on them that are worth a visit.
The Saguaro National Park has several varieties of cactus including the barrel cactus and the pear cactus seen here. And yes, there are cougars – we chose not to take this trail.
The park area has a wide array of flora and fauna though some of the animals are only active at night. We did spot one roadrunner though none of the bird’s nemesis – the coyote. We came across bunnies and lizards and saw a wide array of birds on our hikes. The sounds of doves cooing was a constant in our campsite and quail busily went about there business with their young following close behind. And though we didn’t come across any, the National Park also contains rattlesnakes, scorpions, bobcats, gila monsters, javelinas, tortoises and horned lizards along with hawks and owls.
One of my favorite desert plants the spindly Ocotillo plant with brilliant orange flowers was just starting to bloom at the end of its thorny branches.
The Fairyduster stands out in the general green-brown color scheme of the desert landscape.
The cholla cactus was born angry and just dares you to touch it. The needles are sharp and have barbs at the ends making them difficult to remove. I speak from firsthand knowledge unfortunately.
In the heat of the day things quiet down as animals and tourist take their siestas and the haze rises up on the distant plains. Temperatures can often reach beyond 115 degrees in the heat of the summer months. Due to the heat, the busiest times in the park are November through March.
The skin of the Saguaro expands to allow the cactus to hold extra water which can be used in the hotter, drier months.
As the sun goes down and the evenings cool off, the sky lights up and the cactus silhouettes strike their iconic western pose. The Desert Discovery Trail is a great trail for viewing the sunset. It is a self guided paved nature trail located off of Kinney Road, about 1 mile north of the Red Hills Visitor Center.
Saguaros have a single taproot that goes down about five feet to access water deep underground. The rest of the roots branch out like a net about three inches under the surface to better collect rainwater.
When the sun goes down it gets dark, really dark. That makes for great star-gazing but also caused us to lose our way coming back from our sunset hike. We had flashlights and found the road and were luckily able to back-track to our van.
I truly love the crisp desert mornings and watching the sun light up the landscape.
And to keep busy or entertain the kids you can spend a day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum that lies just outside the western district of the park. The museum includes a zoo, a botanical garden, an art gallery, a natural history museum and an aquarium.
And for fans of western movies there is the Old Tucson tourist attraction which is also located just outside the western district of the National Park. You can ride a train or a stagecoach, watch reenactments of gunfights and stage shows or just stroll the old western town.
Rio Bravo, McClintock, Wagon Train, El Dorado, Gunfight at the OK Corral and hundreds of other movies and TV shows including Bonanza and Death Valley Days were filmed at the Old Tucson movie studios. So if you want to walk in the footsteps of John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, and Clint Eastwood, this is the spot.
Peace Out.
As an escape from the winter cold and with the added bonus of the desert beauty we highly recommend the Saguaro National Park. We hope to time a return visit for the Saguaro blooms next year!