Colossal Cacti: Saguaro and Organ Pipe

The desert is an ecosystem that thrives on paradoxes.  Characterized by dry, arid conditions offset by ground-shattering flash flood storms, extreme temperature fluctuations from day to night, and relatively few resources to sustain life, a desert is a generally hostile environment for the suprisingly rich, biodiverse specific makeup of its inhabitants. 

I have been fascinated by the desert for as long as I can remember.  My experiences in the desert began with visits to my grandmother, who lived in Palm Desert for most of my life.  I have very fond memories of drives through the wind energy windmills out to see her.  In the fifth grade, I went to Joshua Tree National Park on a camping trip with my elementary school class.  We scrambled over boulders and stargazed at the starriest night skies I had ever seen.  I was awed by the fact that this incredible environment was less than a few hours away from my foothill home.  As I learned more and more about the desertous regions that surrounded me, I became compelled to explore.

My mom and I road tripped through the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona in the summer of 2015. 

This post is a continuation of the trip documented in "Rock Wonderlands: Caves and Chiricahua."

We stayed in Tucson for a couple of days.

The architecture and color palette of the hotel we stayed at were perfectly suited to the Sonoran Desert atmosphere. 

On a warm and humid July morning, we excitedly entered a cloud-covered Saguaro National Park. 

The mountains in this 143 square mile national park are covered with the saguaro cactus, the park's namesake.

Saguaro National Park has two portions, one on each side of Tucson.  We visited the smaller section, the segment to the west of the city. 

The green desert brush behind me is a reflection of the floral fertility instilled into the desert by the monsoon season rains.

We needed to be careful not to go too far on the trail, as the skies threatened impending rain.

We migrated over to the Sonora Desert Museum, located near the center of the western portion of the park.  

The museum features live animal exhibits, educational displays, and botanical gardens that reflect the species present in the Sonoran Desert.  Here, my mom tried on a proportioned model of California leaf-nosed bat ears.

The faunal assemblage at this museum includes river otters, beavers, bighorn sheep, bobcats, porcupines, bats, birds, scorpions, spiders, snakes, mountain lions, and this sleepy black bear.

A desert grey fox on the prowl.

We left the museum to continue exploring Saguaro National Park.  These prickly pears lined the floor of this saguaro dotted plain.

The saguaro cactus can live to be over 150 years old and can grow to be up to 70 feet in height.  This one was probably somewhere between 25 and 30 feet tall.

A fallen open saguaro fruit.

These cacti are truly humbling to behold in person.  I am very glad that the hug in this photo was only an optical illusion.

 At this point it had begun to rain, so we headed out of Saguaro National Park.

The next day, the sun danced in and out behind majestic, fluffy clouds.  We headed south, to the border of Southern Arizona and Mexico.

Broken glass was a prominent component of the roadside desert floor.

Sparse barbed wire fences separated the road from the desertous expanse.

The jumping cholla, a native of the Sonoran Desert, is pictured to the left.

The stems of the jumping cholla detach from the plant at the slightest touch, hitching a ride with desert animals to disperse the cactus.  This dispersal system can result in jumping cholla stems firmly inserting themselves in a traveler's clothes, socks, shoes, and skin.  We got to experience this biological mechanism firsthand, luckily only in our socks and shoes.

The gorgeous desert landscape, featuring jumping chollas, ocotillo, and saguaros in the distance.

A saguaro/ocotillo portrait, featuring the divine combination of white clouds and blue sky.

We reached our destination, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a 517 square mile biosphere reserve, is home to a diverse community of Sonoran Desert plants and animals.

We began our time in the monument by driving the short paved road that goes through the park.

Organ Pipe Cactus NM is located on the border of the southernmost portion of Arizona and the state of Sonora, Mexico.  When we reached this sign, we realized we needed to turn around, as we did not have passports or the desire to become stranded in another country.

This national monument contains five dirt roads, four of which are only traversable by high-clearance vehicles like trucks and SUVs with four wheel drive.  Only one road advertises being "usually passable by a normal passenger car": the Ajo Mountain Drive.  We opted for this one, hopeful that our Toyota Camry would take us through the 21 mile loop without any issues.

Although the Ajo Mountain Drive is the most popular scenic drive in Organ Pipe Cactus NM, there were no other visitors on it for the entirety of our time in the park.  Monsoon season is typically not the most widely desired time of year to visit Southern Arizona and its national parks.

We stopped at this picnic area to take in the scenery.

The views were absolutely incredible, enriched by the celestial clouds shifting and shadowing the mountains, plains, and cacti below. 

This monument is known for its abundant cacti, primarily of the organ pipe and saguaro varieties.

Dark and light expressed through the counterbalance of sun and cloud.

Saguaro cacti to the left, organ pipe to the right.

The organ pipe cactus is characterized by multiple narrow stems growing from a central, short, single trunk.  This variety of cacti is almost exclusively found in Mexico, with the exception of this national monument in Southern Arizona.

These magnificent cacti can grow to be up to 26 feet tall, 12 feet wide, and over 150 years old.

For an idea of size.  My mom is a couple inches short of 6 feet tall.

This cactus is probably at least three times my height and five times my age.

This natural arch is visible right from the road.

A one mile path leads up to this impressive arch, although the over-100 degree heat was enough to make this hike highly undesirable at the time.

The Ajo Ridge is the result of intense eruptions of volcanic activity approximately 25 to 15 million years ago.  The most recent volcanic activity near this monument occurred in the 1600s, less than five centuries ago.

The tallest mountain in Organ Pipe Cactus NM is Mount Ajo, measuring 4,800 feet at its summit.

No one for over ten miles in either direction.

Behind the glorious cacti, the dark shadow of clouds over the mountains foreshadowed impending trouble.

A symptom of Organ Pipe Cactus NM's volcanic origins are outcroppings of black, grey, and green obsidian, or volcanic glass, throughout the park.  Obsidian shards are as sharp as any type of broken glass, thus entailing equal potential for harm of human, animal, and manufactured matter.

Unfortunately for us, our back right tire was no match for the obsidian beds beneath us.  Even more unfortunately for us, neither my mom nor I knew how to change a tire, and the heat was far too aggressive for either of us to attempt to learn without risking dehydration or overheating.

This photo, taken on Snapchat, records the scorching temperature of our forced resting place.  We were luckily able to drive up to an area with weak partial shade, although even these places were few and far between.  104 degrees still feels unlivable in the shade, especially when air conditioning is no longer available.

As we did not have ample gas left at this point, we turned off the car and attempted to cool ourselves however we could.  Hanging white shirts in our open windows helped to deflect the sun while keeping the air flowing between the inside and outside of the car.

This photo is representative of my mom's and my existence for about two hours.  We were extremely fortunate that we were stuck in one of the few places on the 21 mile loop that had cell phone service.  We were less fortunate, however, in that the national monument rangers at the ranger station had gone home early for the day.  A call to Triple A was unfruitful, resulting in our agent thinking that we were stuck on an unpaved road in Oregon ("Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument" apparently sounded just like "Oregon" to the company representative). The ultimate saving force was a call to 9-1-1.  The operator told us that she would see what she could do and would call us back.  We never received a call back and did not hear or see any sign of help for over an hour.

In the meantime, we seized the opportunity to explore our involuntary stopping place.

My  ever-geologically inclined mother and I spent some time looking at all of the rocks on the side of the road.

The silver lining of this experience was the chance to stop and savor the incredible landscape that surrounded us.  In this circumstance, not being able to do anything but live in and think about the present moment, I felt as though I was becoming one with the desert.

We gained an appreciation and humility for this vast land that transcended this day, and even this trip.  We now understand that mother nature is always the dominant power.  We must treat her with respect and be aware that we are only infinitesimal entities in her boundless macrocosmic scheme.

With the sun setting and the clouds moving in, we prepared ourselves for a night in the car, merely hoping that someone may happen to drive the path at some point in the next coming day.

By the grace of 9-1-1 and the spectacular national parks service, we were saved about two hours after our initial tire mishap.

We had been stuck at the 13 mile marker on the trail, so after changing our tire, the park rangers followed us for the remaining eight miles of the road.

We were endlessly grateful to have competent escorts making sure that we made it out of the monument safely.

Enjoying the oh-so-desired drive out on our spare back tire.

We were fortunate enough to witness a stunning rainbow over the Ajo Mountains as we re-entered civilization (and paved road territory, thank goodness).

Our good fortune was counteracted by the very funny event of us getting a ticket about ten minutes after we had arrived back on the paved road.  We learned here to go very slow in small towns that need revenue, especially when highway speed limits transition quickly from 45 to 25 miles per hour.

Regardless of the police encounter and traffic citation, we were gifted with glorious sunset skies on our drive to the nearest lodging. 

The sun peaked through to remind us that we were alive and had made it through our harrowing Organ Pipe experience.

That night, we witnessed a desert lightning storm from our motel pool.  The skies above us were completely clear, yet our view entailed an incredible light show out in the remote, civilization-free desert land.

This version of the same photo documents the nighttime temperature of the location from which we watched the storm.

The next day, we visited Painted Rock Petroglyph Site near Gila Bend, Arizona.

 

Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, the final stop on our Southern Arizona adventure, contains about 800 multiple-century- to millennia-old rock etchings, or petroglyphs.

 The glyphs at this site are thought to have been produced by the Hohokam peoples between 300 and 1700 CE.

The squared spiral symbol is likely meant to depict the winding path of life, like a maze that we experience over the course of our lifetime.  Other symbols at the site include illustrations of humans, animals, suns, moons, and more.

These petroglyphs were too fascinating to pass up, although the heat and minor sunstroke of the previous day limited our visit to how long we were willing to be outside of the air conditioned car.

If only we were able to ask the artists what their works portrayed and symbolized.

The common experience of man transcends time.

Our adventure through Southern Arizona was endlessly valuable, both in terms of the awesome scenery we witnessed and the vitally important lessons we learned.  We left this trip with a renewed respect and humility regarding the desert.  These sentiments will always remain with us, from memories of our times in Saguaro and Organ Pipe to what lays ahead for us, in the future facets of desertous ecoregions that we have yet to experience.