Hiking in Saguaro National Park

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Winter is coming — it’s getting much cooler and is starting to rain. Thankfully, we were able to get out and go hiking and boxing before the rain started today (it’s been pouring off and on since last night). For this weekday adventure, we chose to go hiking in Saguaro National Park on the West side of Tucson. Because Curtis has school in the afternoon and we only have 2 hours until sunset when he gets home, we had to split this letterbox hike into 2 days. On Wednesday, we hiked around 3 miles up toward Wasson Peak on the Sweetwater trail, and on Thursday we hiked the other way, down Thunderbird trail. All of the trails were in Saguaro National Park West of Tucson, but the 2 boxes we found were hidden off of the national park territory.

With these 5 miles logged, we have now hiked around 100 miles since we got married almost 4 months ago. The longest trail that we’ve hiked together was only 5 miles, which means that we have done lots of  <5 mile hikes on many, many trails. Someday I’ll be brave enough to hike to one of the big mountains with high elevation and longer distance with Curtis. For now, I’m enjoying what short hikes I can take to get used to the elevation and build up my endurance. With all the beauty that we find in Southern Arizona, it really isn’t hard to enjoy even a short walk!

Hiking in Saguaro National Park | The Sweetwater Trail

hiking in saguaro national park west side tucson

 

tucson mountain park sunset

 

view of catalina mountains from tucson mountain park

 

cool clouds over saguaro national park

 

prickly pear cactus in saguaro national park

 

bright colors after monsoon in saguaro national park tucson arizona

 

sunset in saguaro national park tucson arizona

The clouds and sunset colors were incredible that evening. I suppose having beautiful clouds is a big advantage of all this rain. Also thanks to the lower temperatures, I’m not as worried about rattlesnakes anymore. The only thing to look out for are the cholla cacti that jump out at you…right, Curtis? 😉

sunset hike saguaro national park arizona

 

view of tucson from saguaro national park west side

 

sunset tucson mountain park tucson arizona

 

beautiful hiking trail saguaro national park
beautiful sunset hike saguaro national park

Hiking in Saguaro National Park | The Thunderbird Trail

Here’s a few more pictures from the next day, hiking in the opposite direction. See the cactus with the weird growth on the top pictured below? It is a crested saguaro. They kind of creep me out, but they’re pretty rare to find.
crested saguaro in saguaro national park

 

saguaro cactus in saguaro national park

 

rain clouds over saguaro national park

Being here makes me wish I was better with photography to be able to capture all the beauty. Hopefully we’ll be able to have another Saturday adventure this weekend despite the predicted rain and Tour de Tucson surrounding the city.

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