Project Description
USA, South Arizona November 2009
if you love cacti, Arizona and the southwestern Sonora desert, is the right place! Arizona is known for its majestic jiant Saguaros and beautiful desert land scape. Traveling through the Saguaro national park is a dream come through where one can see a big varaity of cacti and other plants in a well maintained and easy to travel park.
Route
As in all of our trips the main goal is to see Cacti in their natural enviorment, Arizona and Southern California’s sonora desert is an excellent place to achive this goal.
DAY 1|We selected a very nice hotel in Tucson that enable us to explor the area.
DAY 2 | A short drive took us to the Saguaro National park east, where we saw endless fields of cacti.Saguaro, Ferrocactus, Opuntias, and Mammilaria can be seen every where. added Bonus was to see a beutiful crested Saguaro. At twilight we drove to a high point at the Rincon Mountain in order to see an outstanding sunset.
DAY 3| Starting up early in the morning we drove to the western side of the Saguaro National Park, the land scape is flatter, and drier than the eastern side, ther for the giant saguaros are a bit smaller, we visited the desert museum, wher one can see plants and animals of the sonoran desert, highly recommended
DAY 4 | We left Tucson heading towards Benson where we visited the Kartchner Caverns. Driving east we arrived at the CHIRICAHUA National Monument where nature can be seen at its out most beauty!! we walked in one of the many tracks in the park where cacti can be seen growing under pine trees.
DAY 5 | We left Benson heading west towards Ajo. Along side of the road we saw many cacti including a beautiful crest of Saguaro. At the entrance to Ajo we saw a very nice sign saying “to end of the world 9 miles, to Ajo 12 miles”…that afternoon we drove from Ajo to the Orgen Pipe Monument, a beautiful and easy to travel through Park.
DAY 6 | We headed west from Ajo towards San Diego Ca. A long and boring drive.When getting close to California we could see Ferrocactus right close to the road , but unfortunately one can not stop on the high way.
DAY 7 | A day of relaxation in San Diego, in the old town we visited a nursery and met there the “Plant Man” – Michael Buckner an expert cacti grower and an experienced field traveller who gave us a lot of tips were to see cacti on our way north.
