The Cactus Trip Diaries

The rain seems to have stayed behind in California, so we enjoyed the first non stop sunshine day since Angie arrived.

We arrived at the visitors’ centre of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument at around 9 a.m. and after spending about an hour chatting with the rangers (we would never have spotted two Peniocereus greggii without his help and later, on the way to Tucson his mile markers helped us to see two crested saguaro -S2346 and S2347 respectively, we started the 21 mile Ajo Mountain Drive (S2345). It was a stop-start drive that took us three hours to complete. Every twist and turn in the track offered a new vista of saguaro and Organ Pipe Cactus. We have enough pictures of Saguaro with arms in funny and naughty poses to fill an evening long caption competition at a cactus club. At the highest part of the trail Echinocereus engelmannii was in flower. Ferocactus wislizenii and F. emoryi were the barrels on display and Mammillaria grahamii / microcarpa could be found hiding under Brittlebush and Creosote bush.

We took the Az 86 to Tucson and found the Silver Saddle Steak House without trouble. Angie agrees: best steak she’s ever had – fit for a Queen! I had the Cut for a King Prime Rib as usual.