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Well, I was right. The sun came out today but it stayed cool enough for the snow to stick around a while. It was an absolutely glorious day to be out – and we were – for most of the day. Destination: Catalina State Park in Oro Valley, AZ, just north of Tucson, for pictures and geocaches. We got plenty of both and had lunch at In-N-Out Burger, our favorite burger chain.

Everywhere we looked today was another picture postcard scene. Mother Nature gave us the luxury of being able to pick and plan our shots. It’ll all be gone tomorrow. I picked out three of the best for the post. I hope you like them.

Winter scene in AZ

This was taken at one of our cache finds today. Did you know it takes 50 years for a Saguaro (swore’-oh) cactus to grow one arm? These big ones are several hundred years old. The 5,500 acre park has 5,000 of them.

The mountains in the background are the Santa Catalinas. They border Tucson on the north and east, leaving the city nowhere to go in those directions. In Tucson, the “foothills” are THE place to live because nobody can build around you and spoil your view. The entire mountain range is part of the Coronado National Forest.

AZ desert winter scene

Another good shot, this time more mountain and less cactus. The clouds rolled on and off the peaks all day and cast shadows on the slopes. Mother Nature put on a real show.

The altitude of the park entrance is about 2,700 feet. These photos were shot between 3,000 and 3,500 feet. The peaks in the photos are up around 7,000 to 8,000 feet. They get higher as you go north and east to Mt. Lemmon at 9,167 feet. There are connecting trails that will take you from here all the way to Mt. Lemmon – a very rugged 14 mile hike one way.

This is my favorite shot. A desert landscape with massive snow covered mountains as a backdrop - not something you see every day.

This is a great shot of the mountains. A desert landscape with snow covered mountains as a backdrop – not something you see every day.

This is winter’s last gasp around here. It’s supposed to hit 80 degrees next week.

Cheers … Boris and Natasha