Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [364]
Big Sky Rides, 6501 W. Ina Rd. at Desert Trails Resort (☎ 520/744-3789; www.montanaweb.com/horse/arizona. html), offers guided horseback-riding trips through the park and the nearby mountains, including sunrise and sunset tours. A 1-hour ride costs $30; 2-hour trips are $50.
Wildlife Viewing & Bird-Watching. Both sections of the park offer abundant opportunities for wildlife observation and bird-watching. Because Saguaro East has a greater range of elevations, and therefore climates, you'll see a larger variety of animals there.
In both sections of the park, look for holes punched in saguaro cacti by Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers. These finicky birds sometimes make several cavities before settling on one as home for the year. They always punch out a new home when they return the following year. The extra holes are taken over by other desert inhabitants, including cactus wrens, Lucy's warblers, and cute little elf owls.
Among other birds you're likely to see in both sections of the park are black-throated sparrows, brown towhees, verdin, brown-crested flycatchers, Costa's hummingbirds, roadrunners, mourning doves, white-winged doves, Gambel's quail, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks. In the eastern part of the park you'll also see rufous-crowned sparrows, olive warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, solitary vireos, American robins, pygmy nuthatches, Steller's jays, mountain chickadees, violet-green swallows, broad-tailed hummingbirds, and Cooper's hawks.
Mammals commonly seen in the park include desert cottontails, Harris ground squirrels, round-tailed ground squirrels, striped skunks, javelina, mule deer, and southern long-nose bats, which pollinate saguaro flowers while feeding on their nectar. You may also spot white-tailed deer in the higher elevations of Saguaro East. Reptiles commonly seen include zebra-tailed and western whiptail lizards, gopher snakes, and king snakes. In the desert and foothill areas, watch out for the many western diamondback rattlesnakes, which are poisonous.
Camping
INSIDE THE PARK
There are no drive-in campgrounds in the national park, but backpackers will find six backcountry campgrounds in the Rincon Mountain Wilderness. All the campgrounds have three sites each except Manning Camp, which has six. Water is available at Manning year-round, but water availability at the other campgrounds is spotty—ask a ranger. To avoid illness, you must treat backcountry water before drinking. Backcountry camping is permitted only in designated campsites. Pick up the $6 permit at the Rincon Mountain District Visitor Center or by writing to the park.
NEAR THE PARK
Four miles south of the park's Tucson Mountain District is Gilbert Ray Campground, just off Kinney Road on McCain Loop Road, operated by the Pima County Parks and Recreation Department (☎ 520/883-4200; www.co.pima. az.us/pksrec/natres/tucmts/tumtpk.ht ml). It offers an attractive desert mountain environment of saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, mesquite, and paloverde, with well-maintained gravel sites. The sites are first-come, first-served. No wood fires are permitted, and RV hookup sites offer electricity only.
Convenient for visitors to the national park's Tucson Mountain District, the campground at Catalina State Park, 9 miles north of Tucson on Ariz. 77 (☎ 520/628-5798; www.pr.state.az. us), has nicely spaced, well-shaded sites, an abundance of rock squirrels, and splendid views of the Santa Catalina Mountains to the southeast.
There are also campgrounds in the Santa Catalina District of the Coronado National Forest (☎ 520/749-8700; www. fs.fed.us/r3/coronado), north of the national park's Rincon Mountain District. Located along the Catalina Highway, they include Molino Basin, about 18 miles northeast of Tucson, which has limited facilities and can accommodate trailers up to 22 feet only; Rose Canyon, about 33 miles northeast of Tucson, which offers fishing at Rose Canyon Lake; and Spencer Canyon, near the top of Mount Lemmon about 39 miles northeast of Tucson, which can