Update: Arizona's Mexican restaurants are pretty great.

Day 7 took us to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I was immediately taken aback by both how many and how large all of the saguaros are. I had expected too see a couple spread thin here and there, but they were absolutely EVERYWHERE. And they were HUGE. I was informed that it takes at least 70 years for a saguaro to grow its first branch, and it seemed like at least half of the saguaros in OPCNM had arms. The organ pipe cacti were pretty incredible, too. I'd never seen or heard of this species, and they were just as abundant as the saguaros. I thought they looked like a hybrid between ocotillo and saguaros. The hike we took in OPCNM was pretty strenuous, but the view from the top--like all of our other hikes--made it all worth it. That night

On day 8 we ventured to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. After a tour of the private research lab and herbarium, we set out to explore the garden on our own. It was a lovely place with a variety of cacti and other desert plants. I was thrilled to see my first and only Gambel's Quail, though I wasn't fast enough to take a picture. The second half of the day took us up to Flagstaff and it was like entering a whole new world. Besides being almost 40°F colder, the geology and plant life were completely different from what we'd been experiencing the first week of the trip. We explored as a group along a stream, and the rock wall above it was amazing. It had be carved out by years of water erosion and the layers that were left exposed were a magnificent blend of reds, browns, silvers, blues, and greens. The trees were dense and towered nearly 30 feet high. We found some fish and larvae in the stream, which was surprising to me because of cold the water was. We switched it up that night and found some delicious Thai food.

All of day 9 was spent at the Grand Canyon, and I guess you could say it was pretty grand (ba-dum-tss). It was so much fun traveling from viewpoint to viewpoint, each stop allowing us to see a different angle of the canyon walls. I had imagined it to be much more narrow, but I was quickly proven wrong when someone said it would take almost 5 days to hike to the other side. It was over cast most of the day, but when the sun finally came out, the shadows it cast made the canyon walls pop with deeper colors. At one of the stops there were almost 10 elk grazing right on the side of the road. The elk let us come up very close: I was a mere 3 feet away from one of them. We were later informed that they were all female and most likely pregnant, due to calve later in the spring. Most of the trees we saw were Pinyon Pines and Junipers. That night we had a 4 hour drive back to Vegas, so I put in some good nap time.

Unfortunately, day 10 was our last day of the trip. We started the morning at Denny's and then moved on to walk the Las Vegas Strip one last time. We aimlessly wandered into different stores, joking and laughing with each other the whole time. I was very sad to have to board my plane that evening to go home. Though I missed Florida, I didn't want our trip to end. This was without a doubt one of the best experiences of my life, and one I will never forget. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Douglas and Cody for dedicating so much time and effort to put together a trip that allowed me to be completely immersed in desert biodiversity.

howdydoody

Posted on March 24, 2018 10:29 AM by kelsyates