2/13/18 Catalina State Park

Today we drove 20 minutes north and took a walk in Catalina State Park.  The area was very different than the desert park near us.  It is in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains and is surrounded by Coronado National Forest.  The path was wide and lined with creosote trees and cacti.  On one of the knobs of the mountain we noticed a natural A (for Arizona?).  The path was uphill for a bit and then leveled out before descending in a series of manmade steps to the canyon floor.  Fun fact:  if a barrel cactus is leaning, it is leaning toward the southwest (see pic)!  I also took a pic of an ocotillo plant.  At this time of year is looks like a bunch of thorny sticks, but when the rains come, it leafs out and has bright red flowers all over it.  Most of the wash is sandy, but at the bottom of the canyon there are a number of large boulders that have washed out of the sides to litter the bottom.  We saw a number of century plants complete with the elongated flowers left over from last year.  Coming down the canyon, I stopped to take a picture of the conglomerate canyon wall.  It is probably the remains of an ancient mudslide.  Many-armed saguaro lined the top of the canyon walls.  We chatted with a young couple (married in July last year) who are traveling from California to Michigan.  They are taking their time as they don't want to get to Michigan until late March (I don't blame them).  We gave them some suggestions from out trips out west - Antelope Canyon, Marfa, Texas (we only mentioned Marfa as they said they wanted to stop in Roswell for kicks), Zion, etc.  At one point we saw two women on horseback and then later, a couple on horseback.  The last pic is of a small tree in the wash - you can see how the water has eaten away the soil at its roots.  After 2 1/2 miles of a lovely walk, we drove home for lunch.  Food tip:  I only use a dab of mayo when making tuna - just enough to hold it together, but when you are out of mayo, a small bit of ranch dressing works quite well.  We will have leftovers for dinner tonight.  We hear it is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will see what we will do for an excursion - there are so many choice.