Time to Get Away

Although it was planned for a while, we had to get away last weekend. It was the perfect time to turn off the news, Facebook, and our phones and go live in the desert for a few days.

We visited Saguaro National Park near Tucson. Though you can't camp within the park's boundaries, Tucson Mountain Park is adjacent to the western district, so we stayed at Gilbert Ray Campground. It's a nice, big campground with electric hook-ups, so we relaxed and enjoyed our stay. The weather was pleasant (highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s), and the sun or moon shined brightly the whole time.

We arrived after dark on Thursday but still managed to snag what I feel was the best site in this first come, first served campground. Site A43 is rather far from the restrooms, but we backed up to the mountain, the view was spectacular, and the privacy shrubs were nice. 

Friday morning we visited Saguaro's Red Hills visitors center and then went on a few short hikes that began off the scenic drive, Bajada Loop. First up was the Valley View Trail. The trail is only about a mile round-trip. It's easy but has nice views of the valley below. You're very close to the giant saguaros, too.

After that hike, we stopped again at the Signal Hill trailhead. This hike is short, too, but it takes you to some thousand year old Hohokam petroglyphs that were neat to see.

We had a picnic at Signal Hill, and then we went back to the visitors center. The kids finished their Junior Ranger workbooks, got sworn in, and we bought some souvenirs.

We relaxed a bit at camp before heading out on a sunset hike on the campground trail.

While we spent all our time on Friday on in the western side of Saguaro NP (the Tucson Mountain District), we headed across Tucson on Saturday to check out the Rincon Mountain District in the East. We found a few hikes off the scenic drive, the Cactus Forest Loop. Our first trail was Mica View. It was practically paved and not too exciting after a half mile, so we turned around.

We continued on the drive and stopped at another trailhead. This one promised us a failed mine. The Loma Verde Trail took us to it, but it was nothing more than a bunch of small hills. Then we stopped at an outlook to check out this "cactus forest."

After a picnic lunch and filling up our water bottles, we took our last hike to the Freeman Homestead. It's a mile loop to an old house. Turns out, all you can see are two corners of the foundation of the old house. Who wrote the pamphlets for this place? The Rincon District didn't impress us that day but, to be fair, most of the good stuff in this district is in the backcountry. We didn't venture far off the scenic drive, so I have to assume the impressive sights are farther away.

Back at camp, we relaxed and enjoyed our last evening in the desert. We were in no hurry to get back to reality.

Matthew digs for hours.

The moon rising in the east.

Elizabeth and I played around with the camera.

It's so great to have somewhere to go and something to go there in whenever something you didn't think would ever happen somehow happens.