Head west, no wait east, no...maybe we better pull over. - Park #8

Tucson, Arizona is an interesting place. It was officially formed in 1775 when Spanish soldiers founded Presidio San Augustin del Tucson. Fun fact, at one time Tucson was even the capital of Arizona. The University of Arizona was founded there in 1885 and that was the main reason for our visit, my son in his sophomore year.

Our other motive was to go and visit Saguaro National Park. Scratch this off as park #8! The only problem, how do we get there?

At first maps sent us west of Tucson, but we had previously seen signs southeast of Tucson so how could that be? So, I put in Saguaro National Park Visitor's Center and sure enough it sent us east of Tucson. Wait, pull the car over, now I'm confused.

So, as it turns out, there are 2 locations for Saguaro National Park, an east and a west, with the city of Tucson sitting in the middle. Wow! Okay, I guess we should have checked into that a little sooner.

So, which way to go? East or west? After reading up on the Google machine about a few of the differences with both sides of the park we opted for the east for today with a future pledge to hit the west in the future. We made our choice based on the "tremendous views" of the east.

And tremendous views they were!

It was fun to have Seth on his first park with us and Kyle, on his third. Ashley and I were in good company.

We are familiar with the desert habitat so, I think we take it for granted, as we live in Arizona and see it frequently. A tour bus full of Slavic-speaking tourists made us look at our surroundings differently as we watched their awe and excitement at the scenery around us at various stops.

Here are some facts about about Saguaro cacti:

* Saguaro live to 100-200 years old.

* Saguaro can grow to more than 40 feet tall.

* They are extremely slow-growing cactus.

* It takes around 60 years for a Saguaro to grow an arm.

* Saguaro cactus only grow in the Sonoran Desert.