Saguaro East – Rincon Mountain District

Day 37  Clear and Sunny – Low-52 High-80

We returned to Saguaro National Park and visited the Rincon Mountain district on the east side of Tucson. Rincon is the larger, higher, and more remote of the two halves of the park; it includes an extensive mountainous area with hills as high as 8,664 feet.

Saguaro National Monument was established in 1933 east of Tucson. The bottomland area was chosen because it had a tremendous population of giant old saguaros. It had few young or middle-aged saguaros, because of livestock grazing and the cutting of the young trees since the late 1800s. In 1937, there was a catastrophic freeze, and during the next decade the giant forest was suffering massive mortality from bacterial necrosis. The Park Service bulldozed and buried thousands of rotting cacti in the hope of stopping what it mistook as a new, virulent disease. These efforts failed, and the alarm over the presumed fate of the saguaros became a reason in the establishment of the west unit of Saguaro National Monument on the other side of Tucson in 1961. The monument was finally made the nation’s 52nd national park in a bill signed by President Bill Clinton in October, 1994.

As we neared the park, we noticed many bicyclists on the road. They seemed to be everywhere, and when we entered the park, we had to wait while several paid their fee and rode in. The ranger told us that some bicyclists ride 8-10 times around the 8 mile scenic loop in a day. With many curves and hills, it has to be a great ride. Many passed us and were soon out of sight because we stopped to take pictures or look at the panoramic views at the overlooks. Other less athletic riders struggled with the hills, and we passed each other several times on our tour.

Our very first observation upon entering the park was that the saguaros were bigger, more complex (more arms), and less densely populated. The growth rate of the saguaro is controlled by the amount of rainfall, plant size, and soil type. A tiny seedling has very little water-storage tissue and a relatively large surface area through which water is lost. Soon after a rain, it exhausts its meager supply, stops growing, and goes into hibernation like mode. Larger plants contain more water relative to the enclosing surface area, and can continue to grow for several weeks after rain. We concluded that there must have been more rainfall on the east side of the park than on the west. In fact, all the cacti looked healthy; most were sprouting new growth and throwing out buds. Many of the other desert plants were getting leaves. This side of the park looked more alive, which really enhanced our visit. There are over 15 trails in the northern most section of the park with the longest being 11 miles. The sun seemed especially searing today, so we decided that hiking was not on the itinerary.

As we left Tucson and headed east on Interstate 10, we noticed several things. The bridges over the interstates in Arizona are decorated with patterns in the concrete or painted with scenes indigenous to the area. They were very well done and illustrated the culture, plant and animal life, and native designs. Once we entered New Mexico, we realized how much the bridge decorations enhanced the driving experience. There were a significant number of long container trains going both east and west along Interstate 10, but primarily west. The containers were stacked two high on each car. When you realize that each train car represents two trucks on the highway, it is amazing how the trains are reducing congestion on the interstates. We did notice many railroad cars with automobiles and a significant number of others that had logos indicating a connection to China painted on them.

We had been to Las Cruces about 12 years ago. As we approached the city limits, we noticed how much it has grown in the last 12 years. It is primarily an agricultural area with farms growing chilies, cotton, pecans, peanuts and onions. Tonight we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that we had gone to on our earlier visit. It was very good and more authentic than most Mexican restaurant in the east.

We plan to head north to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a couple of days. From there, we will head across interstate 40 to Ohio. Originally, we had planned on going to two National Parks in Texas: Guadalupe Mountains and Big Ben. We discovered that Guadalupe Mountains has no roads and Big Bend is not close to any hotels. So, if we decide to buy an RV and hike massive distances, we will put them back on the itinerary. With the elimination of two parks we were left with only San Antonio on our must see list for Texas so we decided to go there this spring from Florida. It should only take us two days to get there and seemed to make far more sense than driving across the entire state of Texas.