Last Saturday, yes, once again I am
a little behind with the blog, we hiked the Cactus Forest Trail through the
centre of Saguaro East National Park. The
section we hiked runs from one end of the loop drive to the other and is about 2½
miles each way.
After about a mile we came across
the remains of lime kilns built in around 1880, the lime produced was used for
mortar and whitewash. In 1920 local
ranchers forced the kilns to close as they were causing the destruction of
important cattle forage.
A sign warned that the kilns have
been colonised by bees so watch out!
The trail continued through cholla,
prickly pear, saguaro, leguchilla, mequite, creosote and palo verde, we eventually climbed up to the opposite
end of the loop drive, where after a snack we turned around and headed back.
When we reached the lime kilns on
the way back, we took the ¼ mile spur trail to lime falls. Much to our surprise there was even a little
water in them.
It was very pretty, but I wouldn’t
want to be there during a monsoon!
I think this is some sort of
penstemon, but whatever it was I managed to catch a lovely butterfly on it.
We had a great hike then came back
and relaxed in the sun for a while.
Have fun, we are!
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