Saguaro National Park

The saguaro grows only in the Sonoran desert, takes something like seventy years to produce its first arm and can live two centuries, reaching fifteen metres and weighing several tonnes when full of water, and this park exists to protect two great forests of them on either side of Tucson. The western Tucson Mountain district is denser and lower, with sunsets that silhouette the cactus against the Avra valley; the eastern Rincon district climbs from desert into oak and pine and holds most of the wilderness trails. Between them are Hohokam petroglyphs at Signal Hill, loop drives, and in late spring the white saguaro blossom that is Arizona's state flower. Gila woodpeckers nest in holes in the trunks and owls take over afterwards.

What you actually see

• The saguaro forests - dense stands of the giant cactus in both districts.
• Signal Hill petroglyphs - Hohokam rock art in the western district.
• The scenic loop drives - Bajada Loop in the west, Cactus Forest in the east.
• Spring bloom - the white saguaro flowers in May and June.

When to go

November to April is the comfortable season; summer regularly passes forty degrees and hiking becomes dangerous by mid-morning. The saguaro flowers in late spring and fruits in early summer. Sunset in the western district is the classic photograph.

Honest expectations

Summer heat here kills people who set out unprepared, and rangers are blunt about it. The two districts are on opposite sides of Tucson and take a good half-hour of city driving between them. Everything in the desert is spined, and the cholla in particular attaches to shoes and legs with alarming efficiency.

Nearby

Tucson and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are between the districts; Tombstone and Bisbee lie southeast.