Tucson - Desert Trails RV Park

We arrived at Desert Trails RV Park on the outskirts of Tucson on Saint Patrick's Day and were greeted by a Gila Woodpecker calling from the Giant Saguaro on the site next to ours.




Desert Trails is a converted 60s-era water park and retains some of the water park features.






Sites are very tight, so we were thankful to have wonderful neighbors all around.




The dog park was located about 30 feet behind our RV site. Barkley and his friend Monty from British Columbia:


One ride, two flats - thanks to cactus spines and Puncture Vine:


Taking a break from the grueling sun:


We enjoyed the RV park's wonderful network of trails. A neat Giant Saguaro with winding arms near the beginning of the trails:


A (California?) barrel cactus:


A bird's nest from inside a Giant Saguaro:


Nearly symmetrical Giant Saguaro and a teddybear cholla:


A young saguaro with a prickly pear companion:


Fishhook barrel cactus:




Rain fruit cholla:


Barkley, Karen, and a Giant Saguaro:


The Buddweiser Clydesdales and Dalmation in a Walmart parking lot on March 19th:






Barkley says good-bye to his friends Luna and Dick, as we leave Desert Trails on March 23d:

Holbrook to Tucson

After taking in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park, we stayed the night in the OK RV Park in Holbrook, Arizona. It had been a regular mobile home park sometime in the past and had extra deep, narrow lots.


We left Holbrook on the morning of March 17th and headed to Tucson on US-60 West through gorgeous country full of canyons. The steep climbs and descents showcased a wide variety of formations and vegetation, from badlands with hardly any growth to flatlands with wildflowers to bare peaks, slopes with pines, and peaks with junipers.








Cemeteries seemed to be given much more attention than at home.


These totem-like formations in the Tonto National Forest are called hoodoos.




On the other side of this bridge, which crosses the Salt River and spans the Salt River Canyon, we entered the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and left behind the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.


The first Giant Saguaros we saw!






We pulled off the road to enjoy a beautiful array of wildflowers.


Possibly Red Maids:


Possibly Mexican Gold Poppy:


Teddybear cholla:


Desert Marigold, with tiny little yellow flowers below:




The purple-pink tube flowers are possibly a type of toadflax:


Lovely variety of cacti behind the wildflowers, including cholla (grayish, short, multi-branched cactus on the left), ocotillo behind a prickly pear, and Giant Saguaro: