October 2019, shhhh, Cory and I are hunting Roadrunners. We had all our trusty Acme equipment, now all we needed to do was get it to stand on the correct spot. We had seen online that Saguaro National Park was one of the best places to find Roadrunners, so one long weekend we decided to try our luck. Ultimately on this trip we would be successful in finding a Roadrunner in the greater Tucson, AZ area, but not in the Saguaro National Park itself.
In a previous post you read about our trials and tribulations in trying to find a Roadrunner. While we were disappointed in the fact that we did not find a Roadrunner in the National Park, we were still overawed by the impressive landscape before us and the wildlife we did find.
The Saguaro Cactus is the largest species of cactus and like all cacti they are succulents, meaning they store excess water in their veins and cells in order to maintain moisture even in the driest of conditions. More interesting however is the fact that these cactuses actually look like the ones I remember from all those Bugs Bunny documentaries I used to watch.
When you get to the Tucson area the landscape is really dominated by these massive cacti, there are millions of them, all with unique shapes and haphazard arms. The Saguaro National Park is home to an astonishing array of wildlife, but due to the excessive heat, in the Sonora Desert, it is a struggle to find any during the day. Most of the animals burrow and hide from the sun's intense rays. One of the coolest animals in the area is the Gila monster. It is a fairly large, poisonous, lizard. Unfortunately we were unable to find one in the wild. Thankfully, Cory and I visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where we could see some of the the native species more readily.
Despite the difficulty in finding wildlife in this National Park, it was still a great experience and I would recommend any lover of wild spaces to visit and have their own adventure. As the sun sets in Arizona, especially in Tucson, it really does look like their state license plate. And the clear night sky, with little to no city light pollution, glistening with starlight over the Saguaros is, just breath taking.
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