Saturday, December 17, 2016

Catalina State Park

We’re still in Tucson but moved to the state park. We’ve been hearing a lot of coyote packs at night time. But here in the park we heard a pack right beside our RV. The howling was quite a thing to wake you up! The next day we saw a coyote while on a hike.

The RV park we were in last week had lots of hikes within the desert. Catalina State Park has more varied hikes. Some are along a creek (or would be if there was any water). There was more color here. 
Thought these were century plants, but these stems are from the yucca plants.

The Romero Canyon hike is very difficult and steep. I underestimated how much water we needed for this hike! The good news is that we talked to more people along this path since we all had to sit and rest. BTW, we saw red-tailed hawks sailing through the canyon along with a road runner.

Other hikes have more cactus, particularly the saguaro. The saguaro get more moisture here so many have lots of arms on them.

The park has lots of free classes. One was on the saguaro. This is a boot. It’s where a bird makes a nest inside the cactus. The cactus secretes a substance to coat the hole. Years later when the cactus dies, the boot can be found within the decomposed cactus. Native Americans used it to hold water.




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