NPS Ranger drove a shuttle van to Senita Basin for us to hike back to campground. The unpaved road paralleled the border of Mexico. The hike was very secluded and incredible.We did not see this Cholla Cactus in Tucson so it probably likes warmer weather as do the Organ Pipe Cacti.Building left from Victoria Mine – we had our picnic lunch enjoying this view.Framing a hiking companion and the view of this wilderness area.Moon rise before sunset. This awesome view is from our campsite!Tonight’s ranger evening program will be on the Moon – how it reflects different cultures and what we know about it. It is quite beautiful to contemplate.
A whole new section of the park has reopened. We took the Red Tank trail-head to Baker Mine and saw these views along the way.Humongous Organ Pipe Cactus – so full of character.Nice scenery.Moon rise during dinner a few days before it is full.Desert View Hike before the ranger evening program on National Parks A to Z.
We woke up in Tucson with a dusting of snow! Not something that happens there every year. No snow on the road but a beautiful day to drive. We ended the day in a campsite in Organ Pipe National Monument with this scrumptious sunset.
We headed south of Tubac to visit this historic Mission on a cool crisp morning.Founded in 1691, followed by a continuing 157 years of history, this site is very picturesque. This photo seemed to capture the many layers of history.The adobe walls were wonderful!The textures inside the storage building, The missing roof letting in a lot of light.Really fun to photograph.From this site we headed north to the Tubac Presidio, the first State Park in Arizona and definitely worth the time. We learned that the Spanish used the Canary Islands to base all their longitudinal calculations on in their map making. We also enjoyed the art galleries of Tubac. Finally a stop at the current Mission San Xavier de Bac, where we also enjoyed some fresh fry bread!
Vistas – it feels like you can see forever. Lucky Saguaro!Our neighbors from Denver surprised us by coming to Tucson for the weekend. We thought this trail was worth doing again because it has so much diversity. We are no longer in the Rocky Mountains!These barrel cactus are so cute! I really did want to hug one but I only carefully pretended.It is hard to get a sense of scale until you humanize the plants.We lunched by this stream and enjoyed the fabulous…snow free day!Ready to finish the trail.This scarecrow really fanned out against that blue sky. too poetic to resist capturing.A sunset panorama of the Santa Catalina Mountains from the Westin Paloma Resort. Really fun to watch the light and shadow movement.
Loma Verde Trail on 3-December – Gorgeous Day!Another hike nearby on Garwood Trail on 19-December shows snow on Mt Lemmon.The color of the blue sky was hard to resist!Early morning back lighting on the grass and the Opuntias on the Garwood TrailDon’t fall into the spines! This is an unusual clump of 13 saguaros growing close together on the Garwood Trail.
This is a young saguaro that is probably about 30 years old. We took a sunset hike with a ranger led group on 5 December.Amazing these plants can grow out of the rocks. The wavy pattern on this barrel cactus caught my eye.A wavy sunset too! The almost full moon rose to guide us back to Sus picnic area.We went back on December 18th for a really great geography presentation. We took our own sunset hike after a rainy morning.Great lighting. We took the Hugh Norris Trail about a mile up to the large boulders and overlook.Our friends – they have so much personality!So nice to have this saguaro pose just right there in front of the sunset!Such a beautiful place to watch the sunset. Wish it was a closer drive to the condo.
Green River Campground – sunset while listening to a ranger talk on NPS. They had slept in 51 parks…while stargazing that evening by the river in campsite #77, we figured we had slept in 39 national park sites. The stars and Milky Way were incredible and it was warm enough evening to enjoy lingering and appreciating the Enormity-of-it-All.After picnicking at Echo Park overlook, we hiked to Harpers Corner Overlook spectacular viewpoint. Not the distance of our Green River to Desert Voices to Sound of Silence hike yesterday, but very enjoyable. This overlooks the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers.Camping by the Yampa river, we had this spectacular sunset. Stargazing again was wonderful. We felt refreshed from splashing around in the river before dinner.An early morning hike on the Yampa. What a sight!We spent a couple nights near Steamboat Springs and hiked Rabbit Ears Pass, where this photo was taken.
