Saguaro National Park in Arizona

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Geezer

Parsimonious Curmudgeon
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One of the things that I want to see is the big Saguaro cacti that apparently only exist in south Arizona and a small part of California. So, while we are going to be near Arizona for SWFOG I want to take an extra day or two and visit Saguara National Park.

My question is for someone who has been there.

The park is near Tucson, and has two separate sections, east and west. Is one section preferable to the other or do I need to visit both?

 
One of the things that I want to see is the big Saguaro cacti that apparently only exist in south Arizona and a small part of California. So, while we are going to be near Arizona for SWFOG I want to take an extra day or two and visit Saguara National Park.
My question is for someone who has been there.

The park is near Tucson, and has two separate sections, east and west. Is one section preferable to the other or do I need to visit both?
My vote would be for the west park. There is a desert museum worth seeing in my opinion in the west park. https://www.desertmuseum.org/

But heck, if you have time do both! Also, Mount Lemmon is worth a drive to the top.

 
Depends,

Do you just want to see a giant Saguaro or the actual park? How much time are you planning on? They are North of Tucson (and North of Phoenix IIRC)

If your going all the way to Tucson to see them, shoot me a PM and I will try to give you a few places to check out.

Greg

 
In case it's not hot enough in the first one, plan on hitting the second.

But the road from around Sedona to Phoenix is LOADED with the damn things. Well, off to the side of the road, that is. Tucson is another 116 miles beyond Phoenix, according to Google.

By the way, the first 75 miles from Kanab into AZ (except for the strip north of the big canyon there) is due east to Page, AZ. Couple long days of riding for a side trip.

 
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One of the things that I want to see is the big Saguaro cacti that apparently only exist in south Arizona and a small part of California. So, while we are going to be near Arizona for SWFOG I want to take an extra day or two and visit Saguara National Park.
My question is for someone who has been there.

The park is near Tucson, and has two separate sections, east and west. Is one section preferable to the other or do I need to visit both?
My vote would be for the west park. There is a desert museum worth seeing in my opinion in the west park. https://www.desertmuseum.org/

But heck, if you have time do both! Also, Mount Lemmon is worth a drive to the top.
Thanks. My main objective is the cacti, but the museum looks interesting if I have time.

 
Depends,
Do you just want to see a giant Saguaro or the actual park? How much time are you planning on? They are North of Tucson (and North of Phoenix IIRC)

If your going all the way to Tucson to see them, shoot me a PM and I will try to give you a few places to check out.

Greg
I absolutely want to see the Saguaro. Anything else in the park will be a bonus. I will plan to go all the way to the park and we can decide to cut it short if we see enough of them before we get there.
smile.png


 
In case it's not hot enough in the first one, plan on hitting the second.
But the road from around Sedona to Phoenix is LOADED with the damn things. Well, off to the side of the road, that is. Tucson is another 116 miles beyond Phoenix, according to Google.

By the way, the first 75 miles from Kanab into AZ (except for the strip north of the big canyon there) is due east to Page, AZ. Couple long days of riding for a side trip.
Yeah, at first I was thinking about making it a day trip from Kanab to Tucson, through the park, and back to Kanab. Then I started looking at a route and realized that it is a long way and can't be done in a day. We'll probably head straight for the Tucson area before going to Kanab.

I also want to see Monument Valley and Zion while I'm there, but I think those actually are day trips from Kanab.

 
If you want to get off the slab & enjoy what AZ has to offer (which is a TON of scenery) take 89A south out of Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs instead of 89 east through Utah. Eventually it will end back at 89. Take 89 to Flagstaff, pick up I-40 west to I-17 south. South of Flagstaff get off on 89A again & run it through Sedona all the way to Prescott. In Prescott pick up 89 south again to Wickenburg and take 93/60 southeast to Phx. From there you can pick up I-10 & jet to Tucson. I would also highly recommend seeing the Sonora Desert Museum. You can do this long backroad trek in two long days if you keep it moving at a steady pace. Do an overnighter in Sedona or Prescott. You'll already see a ton of saguaros by the time you make Phoenix but they get much thicker down around the desert museum & Tucson area. 89A is definately one of our most scenic routes in the state.

 
Those of us who ride out west are a little puzzled. You want to ride an extra day in the Arizona heat to see a "cactus museum" Saguaro cactus can be seen through central AZ and southern NM just off the side of the road. Az is where hell spends the winter. Just sayin.

 
If you want to get off the slab & enjoy what AZ has to offer (which is a TON of scenery) take 89A south out of Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs instead of 89 east through Utah. Eventually it will end back at 89. Take 89 to Flagstaff, pick up I-40 west to I-17 south. South of Flagstaff get off on 89A again & run it through Sedona all the way to Prescott. In Prescott pick up 89 south again to Wickenburg and take 93/60 southeast to Phx. From there you can pick up I-10 & jet to Tucson. I would also highly recommend seeing the Sonora Desert Museum. You can do this long backroad trek in two long days if you keep it moving at a steady pace. Do an overnighter in Sedona or Prescott. You'll already see a ton of saguaros by the time you make Phoenix but they get much thicker down around the desert museum & Tucson area. 89A is definately one of our most scenic routes in the state.
Excellent advice from Gary Miller, a long time Arizona rider; couldn't say it any better myself, this is the routing you want. Greg, you and Paul can stay at my house while you view Southern Arizona. Honestly, it will be too damn hot to camp out in the Sonoran Desert at the end of May or the first week in June. Go out on your day trip rides, then come back to Barrio del Chandler and we will drink beer (a lot of beer!) in my swimming pool! MI Casa es su Casa ese, JSNS!

 
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If you want to get off the slab & enjoy what AZ has to offer (which is a TON of scenery) take 89A south out of Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs instead of 89 east through Utah. Eventually it will end back at 89. Take 89 to Flagstaff, pick up I-40 west to I-17 south. South of Flagstaff get off on 89A again & run it through Sedona all the way to Prescott. In Prescott pick up 89 south again to Wickenburg and take 93/60 southeast to Phx. From there you can pick up I-10 & jet to Tucson. I would also highly recommend seeing the Sonora Desert Museum. You can do this long backroad trek in two long days if you keep it moving at a steady pace. Do an overnighter in Sedona or Prescott. You'll already see a ton of saguaros by the time you make Phoenix but they get much thicker down around the desert museum & Tucson area. 89A is definately one of our most scenic routes in the state.
That sounds like a good idea. According to Base Camp it is about 7 or 8 hours from Kanab to the Saguaro NP, so a two day ride down and one day back would be nice. I'll have to talk it over with Paul to see what he wants to do. SWFOG fits in between two family weddings in my calendar so I don't have unlimited time, but there should be plenty of time to enjoy the trip.

 
Those of us who ride out west are a little puzzled. You want to ride an extra day in the Arizona heat to see a "cactus museum" Saguaro cactus can be seen through central AZ and southern NM just off the side of the road. Az is where hell spends the winter. Just sayin.
I understand your question. The story is that I have been to most places in the US and seen everything that was on my list of things I want to see except for the big cacti. I assumed that they were everywhere in the southwest but I went to TAOS (or is it TOAS?) and didn't see any. OK, maybe I didn't go far enough south. This spring I went to Big Bend NP in the south of Texas and still didn't see any. You can't get any further south without crossing into Mexico. So, I finally smartened up and actually researched where to find them. Now I'm going to see them, and see a bunch of them.
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Of course it's not only the cacti. I enjoyed every NP I ever visited. There is always something to see, and the NPs are designed to maximize the views and experiences.

I live in the Catskill mountains where we are surrounded by trees and wildlife. In the summer we get a crowd of people from NY City come up for music festivals and general sight seeing. They clog up the roads on weekends gawking at the trees and deer and occasional black bear. This is every day stuff for me and I joke about them, but they don't have many trees in the city.

 
If you want to get off the slab & enjoy what AZ has to offer (which is a TON of scenery) take 89A south out of Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs instead of 89 east through Utah. Eventually it will end back at 89. Take 89 to Flagstaff, pick up I-40 west to I-17 south. South of Flagstaff get off on 89A again & run it through Sedona all the way to Prescott. In Prescott pick up 89 south again to Wickenburg and take 93/60 southeast to Phx. From there you can pick up I-10 & jet to Tucson. I would also highly recommend seeing the Sonora Desert Museum. You can do this long backroad trek in two long days if you keep it moving at a steady pace. Do an overnighter in Sedona or Prescott. You'll already see a ton of saguaros by the time you make Phoenix but they get much thicker down around the desert museum & Tucson area. 89A is definately one of our most scenic routes in the state.
Excellent advice from Gary Miller, a long time Arizona rider; couldn't say it any better myself, this is the routing you want. Greg, you and Paul can stay at my house while you view Southern Arizona. Honestly, it will be too damn hot to camp out in the Sonoran Desert at the end of May or the first week in June. Go out on your day trip rides, then come back to Barrio del Chandler and we will drink beer (a lot of beer!) in my swimming pool! MI Casa es su Casa ese, JSNS!
Thank you for the invitation. We may take you up on that. We still have to sit down and figure out our routes and schedules.

 
In 2011 I rode my '99 RT back to the BMW Nat'l in Bloomsburg PA (during record breaking temps in the 100's). After the rally I was heading through the Catskills for the first time on my way to the Adirondacks & eventually to Buffalo to meet up with my wife & her family. I was hoping for a nice scenic ride through the Catskills but it ended up being in steady rain & in the middle of nowhere my "trusty" RT crapped out & just died. The starter would roll over but the bike just wouldn't restart. Pouring down rain, no traffic in sight, no cell service. This sucks!! Long story short, along comes a couple on an old airhead that also came from the PA rally. She gets off the bike, stays in the rain with my bike, I in complete & udder shame & humiliation jump on the back of a bike behind another dude (kill me now!) for a 30 mile trek to the next town, call a tow truck, get towed to Albany for $300, & get effed by MAX BMW to the tune of $700 for a $40 hall sensor. Never made it to the Adirondacks & wound up in literal torrential downpour on the way from Albany to Buffalo. 30 miles from MAX my rear brake line blew. Turned out to be the cross country trip from hell.

One of the reasons my RT is gone & I'm now on this new sweet Cherry Bomb. I WILL get back to the Catskills & Adirondacks some day to finish where I left off!

 
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If you want to get off the slab & enjoy what AZ has to offer (which is a TON of scenery) take 89A south out of Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs instead of 89 east through Utah. Eventually it will end back at 89. Take 89 to Flagstaff, pick up I-40 west to I-17 south. South of Flagstaff get off on 89A again & run it through Sedona all the way to Prescott. In Prescott pick up 89 south again to Wickenburg and take 93/60 southeast to Phx. From there you can pick up I-10 & jet to Tucson. I would also highly recommend seeing the Sonora Desert Museum. You can do this long backroad trek in two long days if you keep it moving at a steady pace. Do an overnighter in Sedona or Prescott. You'll already see a ton of saguaros by the time you make Phoenix but they get much thicker down around the desert museum & Tucson area. 89A is definately one of our most scenic routes in the state.
Gunny!

Great route if you can do it. If you do make it all the way to Tucson and hit the Desert Museum, I would reccomend going to Gates Pass (nearby) for the sunset https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60950-d561949-Reviews-Gates_Pass-Tucson_Arizona.html

If you like caves, Collossal cave is in the East side of the park. https://www.colossalcave.com/welcome.html

 
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