Not many things can make Robby look short, but the Saguaro cactus can. This one is around 14 feet tall and around 75 years old. It hasn’t sprouted its arms yet, but is old enough to start some. We didn’t see any wildlife while we were out in the afternoon for the hike and drive other than bugs eating from old cactus flowers. By dusk, we saw in increase in animal life and saw several bats and a Gila monster on the road. The Saguaros bloom all summer and had stopped by the time we visited, but we did catch a few blooms still out. It would be an amazing thing to see them all in their evening blooms.

We spent several days in the desert landscape visiting different places. One of our stops was Saguaro National Park to see the often depicted Saguaro cactus up close and personal. They are amazing plants which surprised me when we looked over the landscape. I’m not sure what I expected, but I liked how the plants covered the hills and valleys like a pine forest would in a mountain region. It was a forest of the prickly trees.

We talked a lot about the cactus with Emily. I was a little concerned that she would try to touch one. They look so cool – I wanted to touch them even though I knew better. We successfully kept Emily from touching just about everything while we were there. I think she even left the dirt alone. While it was quite warm there was a breeze that kept us a little cooler for our nature hike. Emily loved the play area in the visitor center and was quite interested in going back inside to play.