The Sonoran Desert

Saguaro National Monument Visitor Center

A cactus "skeleton"

At Organ Pipe Visitor Center

We drove about an hour and a half to go to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which is designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The Park Ranger explained that it is a very unique area, where animals and plants need to withstand extreme temperatures in order to survive. Outside the visitor center, there was a plaque that said, "if patience is a virtue, then the desert is virtuous". All of the plants and animals are always patiently waiting, for rain, transportation, or some opportunity, which they seize to quickly "live their lives", and then return to patiently waiting. One plant, called the Octochillo, looks like a bunch of dead thorny branches because it uses only its bark for photosynthesis. When rain comes, within 48 hours all the branches sprout leaves and sometimes, little red flowers that look like candle flames. 

This area of Tucson is famous for the saguaro cacti. Apparently it is illegal to kill them, a law put in place because people used to get drunk and then shoot the cacti so that they would fall over. Several of these drunks would also get injured in the process. One guy was upset that a cactus did not fall over after he shot it, so he went and kicked it, then a 500 pound branch of the cactus fell on him. They do not look like they would be so heavy, but the skeleton of the cactus actually looks just like a tree. The green flesh and spines surround wood. 

There are 28 species of cacti in this reserve. The saguaro look like the cacti you commonly see on TV, one giant tube with a few other tubes coming out like arms from the top. The organ pipe cactus looks like an organ pipe--many thinner tubes coming from the ground like a fan. I didn't get the names of all the cacti, but there were a lot of different types. Some were small and fuzzy, and others were squat and round. In some areas, it looked like we were on the ocean floor, since the plants looked more like corals  because they were dry and hard. There is an endangered fish called the pupfish that managed to survive since this area actually used to be ocean. It lives in puddles, and moves slowly; they look like bottom feeders. They are endangered because the puddles often dry up, and they die. 

Since we had time, we also went to Saguaro Cactus State Park, which had a lot of really large cacti, and some nice scenic drives. 

Since this area is close to the Mexican border, there are quite a few checkpoints. It wasn't difficult for us, since they just asked if we were all US citizens, and then let us through. There were signs though, asking you to report illegal activity if you see it.