This is our second day at Saguaro National Park. Today we are taking a longer hike through the desert. We are hiking a loop of parts of three trails to experience the desert in a different way. On this hike, we saw something more like the mental picture we had before we arrived. There was more open ground, but not nearly the amount we had expected. It was more rocky and mountainous as well. We were surprised by the fruit growing on the Saguaro Cactus. We could not figure out how to harvest it, since it was about thirty feet in the air.
This is a panoramic picture of a portion of our hike. It shows the slightly more barren land that we had expected.
Watch this for a short time to get a more detailed view. You can use your mouse to pause it, fast forward it, or to scan in or out.
The variety of colors and plants growing in the desert almost matches other places we have visited.
We also saw some birds, lizards, butterflies, and a demonstration of the difficulty of life in the desert.
In the afternoon, we drove to Phoenix, Arizona to see the capitol. The building was not very accessible. We could only visit the central corridor of the capitol. The large picture shows the capitol flanked by the Senate Building to the left and the House Building to the right. We also saw a family of birds at the capitol.
In the evening, we had dinner with our cousin David. It was great to get to visit with him.