Enter At Your Own Risk

you know you're going to have a good day when the entrance to the trailhead reminds you of your own personal liability, and contains a laundry list of hazards -- and especially when they are then reiterated every couple miles for good measure. today i visited sabino canyon which is hands down my favorite place in arizona thus far. i even loved the drive across tucson in the early morning sunshine. i hiked about 8 miles round trip down seven falls trail, braving the threats of sudden & intense thunderstorms, falling rocks, venomous wildlife, flash floods, and mountain lion attack. the ranger told me that if i heard helicopter sounds to start climbing. outloud i smiled and said "ok," but in my head, i said "yeah right, my clumsy ass is going to be able to clamber up the side of a canyon while dodging the ubiquitous cactuses for any appreciable distance, so i probably will just try to take a good picture of it before i am swept away."

the trail criss-crossed over the creek 6 or 8 times and since tucson got about 400 inches of rain yesterday, the water was cool and clean and plentiful. a nice man caught me fording this flooded road (i wisely opted NOT to caulk the wagon and float it across). i would have absolutely loved this place as a kid. i could've traveled the whole 8 miles jumping from rock to rock and probably constructed some dam masterpieces (ha ha) if i weren't so amazed by the backdrop and conscious of dropping my camera in the water. i did not encounter any storms/lions/hazardous rocks, but i took eleventy bazillion pictures of the mountains, complete with beautiful cross-bedding.

it is surprisingly vibrant and green for the desert. i will remind you that some of these plants look like normal old bushes, but they are actually cactuses and will get you good if you stop paying attention. (i've managed to stop myself from taking a picture of every lizard that passes, but am still attempting to capture the perfect cactus on film.)

anyway, im not sure i made it all the way to the 7 falls, but i found my own private piece of paradise on the way next to this miniature waterfall.

side note: i am amused looking through my photos because i asked a passing hiker to take a picture of me next to it -- he took about 12 in a row, and i could make a perfect little flip book of me wading into the water, climbing onto the rock and laughing hysterically. anyway, off to the right was a huge flat rock with a huge rock canopy hanging over it. that spot is where i want to pitch my tent and live for the rest of my life. and i don't sleep on the ground. i spent about an hour on that rock in the shade daydreaming and listening to the water ... then i realized that a flash flood could come through any moment and i wouldn't even have a chance to get a picture of it, and so i dragged myself back to suburbia.

yesterday i went to the arizona-sonora desert museum, which is actually a very well-put-together and realistic zoo with cactus gardens, a hummingbird aviary, animal exhibits, and an extremely impressive rock & mineral and fossil display. then, i hiked through the saguaro national forest (pronounced sa-war-o -- i am just like a local now melissa). a forest of cactuses. in my head, the desert is just a flat expanse of sand with one or two cacti sticking out of it to break up the horizon a little bit. UNTRUE! there are tons of them, pretty densely-packed, and they go on for miles and miles across the hills.

the saguaro is the stereotypical, two-armed cactus and is the state tree of arizona, and its flower is the state flower. a cactus is surprisingly similar to a tree. i thought it was more like an aloe plant -- tough & green on the outside, but ooey gooey on the inside. instead, a cactus has an interior structure made of a bark-like substance that is a lot like the slats of wood that are bound together to make a barrel. here is a picture of a dead cactus, with the slats separating. i also learned that the spines on a cactus are for SHADE. thankfully, i have not had to resort to using toothpicks to shade myself. my favorite cactus is called the strawberry hedgehog. i want to kiss the person who named it.

a real life coyote also ran across my path while i was in the cactus forest ... unfortunately too quickly to get a picture ! they only get about 25 lbs. though, and this one looked like a cute friendly little doggy!

i have not yet come across any venomous wildlife, but am relentlessly (and fruitlessly thus far) quizzing the locals for good stories about snakes and/or scorpions. from my research, i have gathered that the only people who get bit by snakes are those who deserve it, and a scorpion sting is not a big deal -- like a bee sting -- it sucks, but you get over it. i have been bombarded, however, with literature detailing the proper protocol when approached by a mountain lion. i didnt even know there WERE mountain lions in arizona until i saw a poster in the bathroom instructing me that my best hope to "make myself look bigger," allegedly by raising my arms above my head. awesome. but so far, so good. off to overgaard in apache country tomorrow.