National Saguaro Forest West

After leaving the Desert Museum we took a drive around Saguaro West.  A few weeks ago we were at Saguaro East with Jackie and Nick taking a smooth ride on a paved but curvey road through a section of the forest.  This drive was a little rougher though the information claimed you did not need a high clearance vehicle to take the 5 mile loop through this section.  Hmmmmm....let me tell you I was glad we were in The Beast and not The Honda.  The dirt road was graded but eroded in some spots.   You had to drive slowly so it took much longer than expected but it was a lovely drive.  In "The Zone" the concept of "forest" is MUCH different from ours back in Ontario!

Saguaro Forest (sah-wah-row)

It takes a saguaro 40 years to flower and about 70 years to start growing arms!


We took a little side hike to see some ancient petroglyphs on Signal Hill.  I liked their method of keeping people from climbing on the rocks!