| Not having walked anywhere for several weeks we decided to go for
a walk in Sabino Canyon just to the north of Tucson. It is a state park but
being within the Coronado national forest our Golden Eagle extension to our
National Parks pass gave us free entry. |  |
 | The fall colours
in the US are wonderful and being further south they are proportionately
later. These are predominantly cottonwoods. |
| Within the canyon are the remains of a dam which started to be
built to conserve water but which never got completed. It seems rather
strange to have a dam on a dry river bed, but they are in a nine year drought
in this area. All of which made the fact that it started raining during our
walk even
stranger. But the foliage-bearing plants are much denser along the
streambed. |  |
 | This is a
chain-fruit cholla, quite a common desert cactus which grows more like a
tree. |
| This is the same sort of cactus tree but it is much redder in colour. This one is also bearing fruits which are much sought after by the
early peoples and the desert wildlife as a source of food. |  |
 | The barrel
cactus bears its edible fruits on the top. It is quite common in the
area. There are other sorts of barrel cacti, some with curved fishhook-like
barbs. |
| The trademark cactus of the area is the saguaro which is quite
prolific in the canyon. When these die the flesh drops off or gets eaten and
the ribs remain. The ribs support the cactus while the fleshy 'pleats' around them
expand and contract as the water supply varies. The ribs are woody but are
very lightweight. |  |
 | Some cacti like
this prickly pear propagate by means of buds which fall to the ground or
are blown off or carried away. |
| This is a baby fishhook barrel cactus . The picture is actually
larger than life size. As you can see they protect themselves from an early
age with their vicious spines. |  |
 | Despite all the
spines the cacti do get eaten, although what took this bite I'm not sure.
The canyon does have mountain lions, or at least warnings about them. I
suspect it is more likely that somebody took a bit home to try cooking it
since they are supposed to be edible. We haven't checked this out
personally, but the pads can be bought in southern US supermarkets. |
 | We did find this
roadrunner making quite a racket, but not going beep-beep. It was very shy
and kept running away from us. |  |
|