Gila woodpeckers: Loud and conspicuous residence of the desert who sound a bit like an over excited gull. Gila (The “G” sounds like a “H”) is a name that pops up several times in this area. Gila monster, Gila River, the woodpecker. I wonder which came first?
Ocotillo: These shrubs are tall, spindly things with both thorns and leaves. The leaves only appear when there is enough moisture in the ground to support them, and the thorns are ready to steal a piece of your skin year-round.
Ocotillo 
Unknown wildflower
Cactus wrens: I have heard them more than I’ve seen them. Their calls are a staple in the daily sounds of the dessert. I often see a jay-sized brown bird flicking off among the shrubs, and I’m pretty sure these wrens are the culprits. They almost sound like frogs, and remind me of the chorus of a amphibians we hear back East in the spring.
Black-throated sparrow: A loud jumbled twittering call, I quite like this spunky little sparrow. They are aggressive in their song, much like our winter wren, and perch at the tips of spiny cacti belting it out at the top of their lungs.
Gila monsters: These critters are about the size of a large blender (Shoutout Footstuff Podcast) and are black, yellow and venomous. They lounge on the trail before scurrying off in a hurry at the approach of a hiker.
Gila Monster 
The trail forward
Smallseed Sandmat 
Eschscholzia Family
Desert Cottontails: They are everywhere and look like moving earth as they dart through the scrub.
The Saguero cacti really do form a forest. They dot the skyline like our white pines – well over twenty feet tall. They seem to defy gravity with their massive trunks.
The soil is rock-hard and fine, any water that hits the surface immediately runs off. All the plants have tiny, hard, leathery leaves to guard against moisture loss. Even here, at the entrance to Saguaro National Park, I still hear trains in the distance and see helicopters buzzing low to the ground. I assume it’s part of training for a military base nearby. It’s odd hearing so many motors just ten steps outside a National Park.
There are a lot of bikers on this section, I’m convinced that getting hit by one is the biggest dangers of the trail.
It’s still very peaceful here despite the constant drone of a highway. This landscape is tough. Everything has thorns or spines – very rough around the edges, but beautiful in its own way. I think there is a little bit of Sonoran Southwest desert in all of us, the parts that come out when we really need to survive.
Tonight the sun left the sky with an explosion of red and electrified violet. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. The clouds looked like they were on fire, and the already red earth seemed to glow under the tinted light. Cactus wrens and sparrows sang from every direction, and the saguaros imprinted their silhouettes on the watercolor skyline.
I find myself wishing that I could be sharing these moments with some of my favorite people. I’m so thankful to have such a strong friend group of really special, talented, deep thinking individuals back home. My life has been so much more with them in it. Out here, more than ever, I understand the importance of human connection and strong bonds with those around us. After all, we are all just spinning around on this crazy planet trying to find meaning in life and cacti.
