April is the end of the busy season for Arizona RV Parks. Almost everyone heads north to their favorite summer spot and the Park goes into hibernation mode. To empty out the parks refrigerators, they had a $2.00 mystery dinner. You get what you get at a bargain price. We couldn't resist.
While dining in the mess hall, we met a nice lady, Pam, and her son who were avid hikers. She highly recommended the trails at Picacho Peak State Park. Today it was a bit cloudy and not too warm (highs expected in the low 80's), so we drove south 30 miles to explore. In the picture below, the extremely steep peak in the distance (center of photo) is Picacho Peak. We realized neither of us was in shape for a 1,200-foot ascent and chose to hike a couple of less challenging trails instead.
The Children's Cave trail ended at this "cave". Joani is peeking out of the cave, but is also as far into the cave as you can go - it was more of an indention into the rock than an actual cave.
It was difficult to imagine just how you get to the top of the peak. There were cables to help with the climb, but still, it looked like it was nearly vertical everywhere we could see. I was happy to accommodate Joani's choice of the much less challenging Calloway trail.
We asked a volunteer if they knew what caused the ripples in the cactus below. They had no idea but ventured a guess that it was due to periods of plentiful moisture. It seemed strange, however, that a rippled cactus was sometimes next to one without ripples, so a google search was in order. It seems no one knows with any certainty.
After many google searches with no answers, I am going to guess that Fasciation is the answer. This is what causes the "Cresting" anomaly that is found in some Saguaros. What causes fascination? No one knows. While researching, I ran across a blog called "tywkiwdbi." This entry was so interesting, I think I will start at the beginning and read a few back entries every day.
I will now keep my eyes open for examples of fascination while hiking - fascinating!
No comments:
Post a Comment