2020 Winter Camping Trip Day27, 2020/12/22
2nd overnight backpacking day1 in Saguaro National Park! This time we headed for Juniper Basin campground, and set up camp, and day hiked to Tanque Verde Peak. Total was 12 miles with 4200 feet elevation gain. A lot of elevation gain, but it was totally worth it!
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| Saguaro |
Blue sky and countless Saguaro. Only a couple of people on the way. So nice.
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| Young Saguaro |
On the way I saw various age of Saguaro. Some young Saguaro are cute. The 2nd picture is young Saguaro. They grow in the shelter under Palo Verde nurse trees. It was nice to see in person a lot of stages of Saguaro trees. From pictures, it is difficult to see these images!
There were 2 guys, who looked like retired, on the way and asked if we were going to Juniper Basin. We said yes. They said, "All right!" They are friendly, chatty, and happily hiking after retired: I hope I continue happily hiking until 100 years old!
About 2 miles to go to the campground, we saw 2 volunteer hikers. They day hiked into the campground to check if everything was okay. They said that one party camped there previous night. They asked if we had enough water and we said yes. They told us that there should be water puddles year-round a little beyond the side trail from the campsite.
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| Tanque Verde Peak |
We pitched a tent at the campsite and went to Tanque Verde Peak. It was up high above 7000 feet and the view was amazing. Geology is very different from first 4 miles: no Saguaro but more rocky and high mountains were seen. I had anapan at to top for reward. Delicious!
Then we came back to the campsite. Extremely surprising fact was that fire is allowed at Juniper Basin campground. There is only a couple of puddles nearby in the middle of desert and fire is allowed!? Wow. The fire danger is high, but maybe it is okay, because the campsite is actually surrounded by trees and kind of protected from winds. Even if that factor is considered, the fire permission was still super surprising. We had enough water and we found some pool nearby, so why not having fire? I was excited. When you think that something is prohibited and suddenly you find it allowed, isn't it exciting? Since it is desert, the night is still very cold even if it is southern Arizona. It was late December. Although we were heading more south and south as time went by in December to escape cold, the cold became faster to south than us.
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