Saguaro Forests and Lemonade

We are in Tucson, Arizona, about a 100 miles to the Mexico border. Finally we have reached some serious heat and perpetual sunshine. Due to an unfortunate (clumsy?) slip while hiking near Queen Creek a bit north, Megan managed to sprain a finger on her left hand. After ascertaining that it was sprained and not broken (and experiencing the US health care system, which, if you have insurance, is okay), we ended up at the Catalina State Park, just north of Tucson. Our first impressions of Tucson are positive, everywhere you see people riding their bikes and the city streets are very bike friendly. Just what we like to see.

Even with the sprained finger, we decided that our motto for the week would be “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Since climbing is now out of the picture for a few weeks while the sprain heals, we will be spending more time hiking and sightseeing. Also, we actually made freshly squeezed lemonade from our Palm Springs bounty. Yum.



Today we took a fabulous hike through the desert canyon in the park, passing many amazing saguaro cacti (the classic cactus!), some standing upwards of 30 feet, prickly pear cacti as far as you could see and the cholla cactus, a plant you would not want to mess with! Lush is not a word normally associated with the desert, but that’s exactly the word I would choose for the desert here.