![]() I imagine my infatuation with these stunning oddities will continue throughout my life, and I hope to encourage others to become Cristate aficionados as well. I love to gaze up to find one standing proudly like an Indian chief showing off his majestic headdress. Since my first discovery, I’ve encountered several more crested saguaros in places such as Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Saguaro National Parks ( West or East), Colossal Cave Mountain Park, Tucson Botanical Garden, and Sabino Canyon. This dry cave in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson offers tours that cover the extensive and colorful history of the cave. Radio chips have been implanted into thousands of coveted specimens, and poaching is on the decline. On the bright side, an initiative started a few years ago to make it easier to track them if stolen. Therefore, using them for target practice, lopping off an arm, or spray painting them is a felony carrying a sentence of up to 25 years. Cacti are protected against theft and vandalism by state and federal laws. The downside of saguaros’ popularity, especially the crested saguaro, is they are black-market commodities whose poachers pocket several thousand dollars per haul. Cardell divulges his tools for finding rare specimens: a sturdy vehicle, quality binoculars, good hiking boots, and plenty of snacks. The website shows nearly 2,200 photos categorized by county. Enthusiasts have formed groups such as the Crested Saguaro Society, whose mission is to “use the best resources to locate and document examples of this beautiful mutant.” Tucsonan Bob Cardell is one of the founding members and started to document his so-called “Crest Quest” in February 2005. People are also reading Tucson monsoon 2023 starts flashy, knocks out power for. A sheriff in Tucson, Arizona territory, pursues bank robbers and 62,000 in cash. Some scientists believe it is a genetic mutation, while others speculate it is physical damage from severe weather or microorganisms. Colossal Cave is a county park, run by a nonprofit corporation, Escabrosa Inc., under contract with the county. Filming Location Matching Colossal Cave Mountain Park, Vail, Arizona. It’s a bit of a mystery why this rare saguaro-about 1 in 10,000-grows with a fan-shaped crest. I soon learned it was a crested saguaro (botanical name: cristate). I took a shot to capture the magnificent beauty of this Elephant Man of the cactus world. I stood reverently for a minute and then stealthily pulled my camera from my pocket as if I were a hunter who was finally face-to-face with prized game. Instead of simply having numerous arms like the other saguaros, it also had an unusual, enormous, bulbous head. There was something different about this one, though. They did have some of the best stuffies in their gift shop also.My attention quickly diverted from admiring the creamy white blossoms clustered atop a tall saguaro to examining the adjacent one with its arms raised to the sky like a referee enthusiastically gesturing about the final field goal that won the big game. So take the family, cool off in a cave, and have an ice cream□ afterwards. ![]() The nature trail view is beautiful, there were a few cactus blooming but only got to see a small lizard no mountain lions or snakes this trip. We are so glad Adam was able to make your experience memorable. I absolutely loved the combination of history and geology wrapped into one. ONPMarketingTeam, Manager at Colossal Cave Mountain Park, responded to this review Responded March 1, 2022. But know those stairs are mostly spread out and not all at once. ![]() Maybe it was because I tried to see if there truly were 343(?) stairs and hiking and counting tripped me up. But I was a goofball show off who got burned. And Saida gifted me some water to help me out. The last trek back up the stairs, we initially went down, were a little tough. We enjoyed the tour and it wasn’t too long or hard for my weak lungs. There were no promises of Bats but it would’ve been nice to awaken them. She was very upbeat the entire time, informative and had a few cool tricks up her sleeve.
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