Tucson & Phoenix

Cactus Country

I don't know why - maybe it's a childhood fascination - but I'm very intrigued by large cacti (the plural of cactus so I learned recently). For me and probably many others, they symbolize the Wild West and no trip to the South West can be complete without seeing one. But strangely, even though they pop up in every Wild West movie ever made, these large famous cacti can only be found in a small region of the South West: the Sonoran Desert. Lucky for me, we happened to be in that region on August 9th.

Our first encounter with cacti was during the evening in Saguaro National Park. I think the evening light makes them look particularly beautiful. And it also helps that the desert feels a little bit less hot (just a little bit though, it only starts cooling down after the sun has set). We learned that these "Wild West" cacti are actually called "Saguaro" (pronounced sah-waa-roh), consist for 85% out of water, can grow 150 to 200 years old and can reach a length of 18 meters.

The next day, we woke up early trying to beat the heat (no luck, at 7 am it's already 27°C) and went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. The museum is actually a nice zoo showing desert wildlife: bobcats, coyote, foxes, desert birds, owls, reptiles and my favorite, hummingbirds.

By noon, we gave up - the desert heat was too much for us. More than 40° Celsius in the shade! We, poor pale Belgians, are not made for this kind of weather, I swear we were showing the first signs of a spontaneous meltdown. For the rest of the day, we hid in our room and the (very warm) swimming pool.

On August 10t, we arrived in an even warmer Phoenix. We didn't want to spend another day in our boring hotel room so we spent it in the only other air-conditioned space we have, our car. We followed the Apache Trail, the amazing scenic Highway 88 curving its way through the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. We were treated with beautiful desert mountain views, full of century plants and cacti.

Before we headed back to our hotel, we stopped at the very nice, albeit touristy ghost town Goldfield. Thanks to the heat, the town was deserted... we were the only two fools wandering around.