Saguaro East National Park

It was sunny but chilly when we arrived at the trailhead for the Loma Verde Trail early, well earlyish, one morning.   There was only one space left in the parking area, but surprisingly the trail itself was fairly quiet.

The trail is one of those trails that you can make as long or as short as you like, we followed it in a loop for about 3.7 miles.

Along the way we came across some dead or dying saguaro’s, their spines twisted into weird and wonderful shapes.

I particularly liked this one with the cute little curl on top.

We passed the remains of the old Loma Verde copper mine, all that remains are mounds and depressions of what was once a 350ft deep mine shaft dug in 1901.   Though the mine yielded ore of 16% copper it soon closed.

Not exactly sure what this is but it ran across our path and then froze for a few minutes under a tree before disappearing down a hole

We crossed Monument Wash

Where there were some very pretty yellow poppies

The trailhead was a short walk away from there, after that we headed to the picnic area for lunch.

Have fun, we are!

More Travels

It was surprisingly cold when we arrived in Tucson just over a week ago in fact according to the hotel shuttle driver the day we arrived they’d had rain, hail, sleet, snow and a short thunderstorm!   Hmmmm, we thought we’d left that weather behind!

 

Our first couple of days were a little on the chilly side, but I’m pleased to say that the sunshine, blue skies, warm days and cool nights soon returned.

 

We’re in Tucson for a month then we’re heading off to New Mexico and Texas, I think.

Have fun, we are!