April 8, 2026

Darren and I are doing Spring Break Arizona style.  We flew into Phoenix yesterday and drove down to Tucson to start out.  Last night we failed at finding some good Mexican food which you would think would be hard to fail at but we did.  We drove to my choice and quickly changed our minds.  Then we went to Salsa Verde which ended up being OK but definitely nothing to write home about.

Today we explored Saguaro National Park for NP #25 for us. We had a fantastic first stop at Valley View Overlook on the west side of the park.

Look at us out here looking at cactus flowers and getting new birds. Morning in the desert is really cool.  It's a noisy silence.  Like it's quiet yet you can hear bees and birds and things moving.  I like it.  Saw the cutest little cottontail bunny but make sure you don't step off the trail because out here everything is trying to poke you.

Got some cool birds today - a roadrunner, a gila woodpecker, and cool thanks to Stevie nicks and Edge of seventeen - white winged dove! 

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song, sounds like she's singin'
"Ooh, baby, ooh, said, ooh"

We also visited the East side where we drove the scenic loop and stopped for lunch at Javelina Picnic Area. I love a good picnic spot and this was one.  We both decided the West side is better than the East (Rincon).  And the amount of saguaros on the west side was staggering.

We decided to spend the afternoon at a mall theater watching Project Hail Mary. Great idea for the 93 degree weather. We loved it and then headed back to the west side of the park. 

Ended the day with a desert sunset, hearing a couple coyote hips and then seeing a small coyote trotting up the side of the road.  That was a good National Park experience day.