Sabino Canyon ?

Everyone who has been to Sabino Canyon please raise your hands.

Hmmm.

Ok, all of you who have even heard of Sabino Canyon, please raise your hands.

                        That’s what I thought.

                        Me neither.

                But 1.4 million per year of our distant friends and relations have!

                        Now it’s 1,400,002!

                        We all know traveling is fun, but it gets even better when you can discover some of those hidden local gems that do not get the same love and attention that their more well-known cousins do.

                        We can include Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in the grouping. Sabino Canyon is an area of the Santa Catalina Mountains that border the northern edge of Tucson, making for a very impressive skyline.

It is administered by the National Forest Service, not the National Park Service, as it is contained within the Coronado National Forest. The Coronado National Forest totals almost two million acres spread over five different Ranger Stations that are further spread out in two states, Arizona and New Mexico. These Regions are obviously not contiguous.

                        But they are connected by a single environment and that is called a sky island. Aptly named, a sky island is an area of mountainous terrain that has significantly different biodiversity than its surrounding lowlands.

                                    We visited Sabino Canyon yesterday with a bunch of our new friends. We all clambered aboard an electric-powered tram (it’s so popular that reservations are required!) that brought us up several thousand feet and then on the return acted in a Hop On / Hop Off nature at all of the popular trailheads. We elected to ride the entire way as Paula is still unable to shake this bronchitis/flu/persistent cough/neck pain/and general yuckiness.

                                    As you can see from the photos, this area does not conjure up your usual visions of what a National Forest looks like. There are no dense groves of towering pine trees or lush valleys filled with deciduous tress. What we have here are Cacti.

                                                Lots and lots of Cacti.

                                                Especially our besties…

                                                The Saguaro!

                        I apologize in advance for inundating you all with these fascinating plants, but it seems that we’ve come down with a terminal case of Saguaroitis. Luckily this malaise is not fatal and is easily treated by visiting these guys. Just don’t try and hug them!

                        So lets get to know our new friends.

Saguaros live for several hundred years.

Saguaros don’t get their cool-looking arms until they are about 75 years old.

Saguaros are about 250 / 350 years old when they have that classic several-fingered configuration.

Saguaros can grow to be forty-five feet tall and weigh over six tons!

No two Saguaros are identical.

Saguaros provide shelter to all sorts of critters, crawling and flying, as burrows are quite common in them.

They are all over here!

Up high, down low, and everywhere in between, towering above all of their other cacti neighbors.

If you took my hint and went back in the Archives to January 13, 14, &15 of 2021 and read the Posts from our first trip out here, and then add in a place like Sabino Canyon, you can see how easy it is to return.

                        We can’t wait to come back and get on those trails that will lead us to even more places hidden in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!