A Hike to the Multi Armed Saguaro Cactus

Friday the weather cooled down to 80, and Steve and I went on a walk to the Multi Armed Saguaro.  The walk is somewhere over 5 miles long, and my GPS said 4.8 but Steve's said 5.7 miles in length.  I think that I have a setting to change on the GPS, because it consistently shows a shorter mileage than any other GPS that is carried by our hiking group.

The Multi Armed Saguaro is starting to look a little weathered, but it still is standing strong.  I found a new Cholla cactus, and Steve called it a Pencil Cholla, this seems to be a very localized plant.

The wide view show how sparse the plants are and the openness of the desert floor.  It’s interesting how just a few hundred feet away from the RV Park, the terrain turns a bit lonely.

We found a abandoned mine shaft, and the Pima County folks have fenced it off, for the safety of visitors like us.  Steve tossed a rock into it, and the pause until the sound of it hitting bottom, made us think that it is 20 or so feet to the bottom.  This area has numerous mining attempts, that were left over from the late 1800s, and none did well.

The trail camera (upper center) is working at watching this seed block, and it seems to be a deterrent to visits from the wandering Javelina group.  Several nights ago, Steve had a group visit his RV site, and they pushed around a few things on his patio, and left slobber marks on some of the furniture.  No Javelina visits since the camera is on guard.

A coyote made a visit to the seed block in the dark hours.  This coyote made two visits several minutes apart, and seems pretty interested in the smell and taste.  I have the date set incorrectly on the camera, and this set of pictures was taken on 11-10-12.