Saguaro National Park

We have some very nice guests from Charleston, South Carolina with us this week who are headed over to Saguaro National Park today. SNP is five minutes from us and has some amazing Saguaros. It is not unusual to see saguaros with 15 to 20 arms. The most in the park is 42 arms. SNP also has an incredible trail system. When we don't have much time Christine and I do a quick 2.2 mile loop. There is a wide variety of desert wildlife. In our many hikes in the park we have seen: nesting harris hawks, coyotes, white tail and mule  deer, black tail jackrabbits, desert cottontails, desert tortoise, desert kingsnakes, rattlesnakes, at least six different varieties of lizards, squirrels, desert wood rats, AND this beautiful gila monster. Gila monsters are quite venomous. However, instead of injecting their venom, like a rattlesnake, they bite and hold their prey in their jaws and secret the venom into their mouth cavity and thus prey. They are very slow moving for a lizard so relatively easy to photograph -- if you find one. We have known people living in Tucson for 30 years who have never seen one. Yet, we have seen them at The Azure Gate,  Sabino Canyon, Muleshoe, as well as SNP.