Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park is located in southeastern Arizona. The park is named for the large saguaro cactus, native to its desert environment in the western Tucson Mountain District. The park is split into two sections within the greater Tucson area. Certainly, unique to find a national park so integrated with a city like Tucson. We visited both the east and west parts of the park. We enjoyed the western part of the park better mainly because of the hiking available.

The Saguaro’s are spectacular in both parts of the park. Saguaro’s need a perfect balance of heat and rainfall to thrive. Freezing temperatures can be greatly detrimental to the health of a saguaro, and climate is the main determinate of the saguaro’s range. Thus, they are limited to a specific area within the Sonoran Desert, ranging mostly from central Arizona down into Sonora, Mexico. At Saguaro National Park, branches normally begin to appear when a saguaro reaches 60 to 75 years of age. In areas of lower precipitation, it may take up to 100 years before arms appear. An adult saguaro is generally considered to be about 125 years of age. It may weigh 2 or more tons and be as tall as 50 feet. The average life span of a saguaro is probably 150 - 175 years of age.

While the saguaro’s were cool to see, the highlight for us was the King Canyon Trail to Wasson Peak hike. Wasson Peak is the tallest mountain in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park clocking in at 4,687 feet. This was a 7.1 mile out and back hike from the King Canyon parking lot up to Wasson Peak. Our elevation gains was 2,031 and it took us 3 hours to complete the full hike.

A few minutes into the hike, the trail drops into a wash and splits. As we stayed right on the trail and continued a challenging ascent, one of the most impressive saguaro’s seems to pop out and knowing that its probably over 150 years old makes it even more beautiful. About half way to the top we intersected with the Sweetwater Trail. Its an open area and the wind really picked up. The final couple miles were moderately difficult, but the wind picked up continually as a storm was blowing in. The storm was on the other side of the mountain so we did not see it until we got to the top. We signed the summit registration book and took a few pictures. The wind was super strong with the storm, we were not able to spend much time at the top. On the way down we were rained on and hailed on (pee size). It was a super fun hike and the views from the top of Wasson Peak were amazing. We captured pictures from the summit including the storm and posted those below.

Overall, we liked Saguaro National Park and happy we were able to see the amazing saguaro’s and learn a little bit about their history and life.