I started the day yesterday with a trip to my favorite Laundromat in Mesa, the Fluff N Clean. We haven’t used our washing machine for about three weeks now. We only use our combination washer/dryer when we have full hook-ups. I did two loads of laundry, one with whites and one with colors. Then I combined the loads in a large dryer and put six quarters in the machine. This would give me 42 minutes of drying time. I walked next door to have a sandwich at Arby’s. I came back to the Laundromat half an hour later to check on the clothes dryer. It wasn’t running! Doh! I didn’t push the start button after I set the temperature. It was a minor setback. I got it done.

Meanwhile, our friend from our old neighborhood, Lana, picked Donna up to go shopping. Donna wanted to buy new trail running shoes. Then they went out to lunch at a Dim-Sum restaurant and actually tried chicken feet. After lunch, they shopped at Lei Lei, an Asian food market and picked up a few items, and then did some more food shopping at Sprouts and made a final stop at Staples to purchase a 2TB external hard drive. Lana’s friend, Joel, has offered to hook it up to our Dish satellite system so we can record programs to it.

I went for a walk on the half-mile nature trail at the south end of the Buckhorn Campground. I took photos with my Samsung Galaxy S4 of the various cacti in the area. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

First up was the campground namesake, a buckhorn cholla (pronounced choy-ah).

Buckhorn cholla

Typically, buckhorns are three to seven feet tall, but sometimes taller specimens are found. They grow in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts and can live for up to 30 years.

The next photo is a jumping cholla. These are found in the Sonoran desert in Arizona and northern Mexico. They grow up to 15 feet tall. If you brush against one, you’ll understand why they’re called jumping cholla. They’re covered with spines on pads that easily separate from the main stem and seem to jump and attach themselves to skin or clothing. The spines are hollow and are very difficult to remove. I keep my distance when I’m around cholla.

Jumping cholla

I found a large ocotillo next to a majestic saguaro. Ocotillo cactus can grow up to 20 feet tall and live 60 to 100 years. They’re found in well-drained desert soil from west Texas to southern California and have red tubular flowers that bloom March through June.

The saguaro next to the ocotillo is the cactus that defines the Sonoran desert. This is the only place in the world where it can be found. It’s such an iconic symbol of the southwest that movie sets often show saguaros when the location is  supposed to be Texas or Utah where there are no native saguaros. The saguaro cactus grows very slowly. A 10-year-old saguaro may only be 1.5 inches tall. They can grow up to 40 feet tall and weigh more than three tons.

At the Saguaro National Park, records indicate that saguaros start flowering when they’re about 35 years old. They grow branches, commonly referred to as arms, when they’re 50 to 75 years old. The average lifespan is somewhere around 175 years. Saguaros have a pleated skin. When it rains and they fill with water, the pleats unfold. In dry spells, the pleats pull in, resulting in deeper pleats and a smaller diameter stem.

Saguaros have one tap root that may extend two feet deep, the rest of the root system radiates out from the cactus only four to six inches underneath the surface. The diameter of this root system is roughly equal to the height of the plant. The saguaro flower is Arizona’s state flower.

Ocotillo next to a giant saguaro

In the photo above, you can see holes in the saguaro. Flickers and Gila woodpeckers hollow out openings in saguaro cactus. They use the opening as a nest. The cactus forms scar tissue, lining the opening. Later, other bird species will take over the nesting place.

Varieties of barrel cactus are found throughout the hot deserts of north America. Native Americans would pick the flowers from the tops of barrel cactus and cook them like cabbage for food.

Barrel cactus

Another cactus that was utilized as food is the prickly pear cactus. There are 15 different types of prickly pear cactus found in the deserts of the southwest. The prickly pear is the official plant symbol of Texas.

Prickly pear

The Sonoran desert is green at this time of year. We tend to think of the desert as desolate and barren, but it’s full of interesting plants and animals. On my half-mile hike, I found many interesting plants. I flushed two coveys of quail, dozens of doves and saw finches, woodpeckers and other birds. At one point, a lizard crossed the trail in front of me.

Green desert – Superstition Mountains in the background

We’re loving our location, but we have to move tomorrow. We now know that if we want to spend any length of time in Usery Mountain Regional Park at this time of year, we need to reserve space early. This place is booked up until April. I don’t know where we’ll go next. We’ll come up with a plan today.

Thin clouds and a fiery sunset