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"Crazy About Cactus in Saguaro National Park"

    Tucson, AZ

    November 22, 2003

Story by Carey

We went for a leisurely Saturday afternoon drive and a few short strolls in Tucson Mountain Park and the "West" half of Saguaro National Park.  The cacti are certainly enormous and plentiful around here, with some reaching 70 feet high over their several hundred year lifespan.

What are the odds?  Another of those dreaded red Jeeps that Debbie believes are taking over the world.

We had paused on the desolate dirt loop road to take some pictures, when this (presumed) Kenyan runner suddenly and silently blew by us with astonishing velocity.  With a calm "hello" and a literal whooosh of air in his wake, he swept on up the hill, surely training for a marathon somewhere.   You see these guys on TV and think, "yeah, they're pretty quick" but this was breathtaking to experience at close range and in isolation like this.  Just pure, effortless human speed.  Amazing.

Fleshy green on the outside, the Saguaro's have a strong, multi-stalked internal structure that gets revealed when they die.

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