Saguaro National Park

We planned for Friday to be vacation day for all of us enjoy Tucson. We left the hotel at 9:30 and headed out to the Saguaro National Park. We first stopped at the visitor center to pay the fee and get a map. Trevor had napped in the car and was just grumpily waking up.

Just look at all that cacti! We'd get a much closer look soon. 

Elliott was running around and goofing off until he jumped but didn't notice a cement bench in his path. He fell over it and had the wind knocked out of him, He had quite a few scratches and red marks on his ribs, but didn't bruise. As soon as he could walk, we checked out the visitor center. 

This display had animals and plants from the desert and you could listen on these phones to some information. Elliott is listening in English and Trevor in Spanish. 

 Our first stop was at Signal Peak. It was only a 1/2 mile walk up some stone stairs to see petroglyphs on stones. Elliott and Trevor scurried on ahead.

 I made them pose beside this giant Saguaro Cactus.

And from the other side too.

 Elliott's favorite cactus was the prickly pear. He said it looked like ping pong paddles.

Elliott and Brian at the top of Signal Hill. You can see some of the petroglyphs on the rock under the railing. There were lots more to see too.

Trevor climbs up for the picture too. Elliott had his hat on backward so it wouldn't fly off in the strong winds.

 I wanted to be in a picture too so I handed the camera off to Brian.

Fortunately, a nice stranger offered to take a group shot so we could all be in the picture. It was very nice.

Trevor let me hold his hand to climb up all the steps, but he went down all on his own. (His camouflage jackets helped him blend into the background.)

 Trevor sat down to go down the steeper steps. And every time he sat, he wold grab a handful of dirt to scatter as well. Have I mentioned that he loved all the dirt?

 Climbing down more steps.

 Closer to the parking were these awesome tables that helped block the wind. We sat here for a bit while trevor played in the dirt and Elliott sketched a few cacti for his art class.

 We also had some drinks and a snack.

 Our next and last stop in the saguaro National Park was a Discovery Trail. This was a paved 1/2 mile loop that had information about the desert posted along the way. However Trevor loved the black tar strips every twenty feet or so. To him, these were starting lines and he wouild line up and say, "Ready, set, Goooo!" all along the trail.

 Racing is ever so much more fun than plain old walking.

 There were benches to climb on while mom and dad read the boring bits. 

 Just 2 matching cool kids out with the cacti.

 Elliott was trying so hard to look grumpy, but can't resist smiling.

 I was impressed by how cool all the cacti were! They were incredibly tall and so unlike anything here in Layton. I especially liked this many-armed fella with the sagging arms. Good-bye cacti!