This shows the well-maintained trails to be found in the park.

The park description says that this area has changed little since the first white settlers arrived here. It's hard to imagine that somebody would look at this landscape and think, "This looks like a good place to stop". I like it here, but I have air conditioning, a car, grocery stores, etc.

The mountains here are mostly rounded and "soft" looking.

This type of cholla does not grow near where I live. I don't know what it's called.

More of the trail.

The saguaros are sparse in this area. I saw very few young saguaros.

The trails are well marked. If you carry the map you are given at the entrance and stay on the trails, it would be difficult to get lost.

I wanted to get to the top of some of the mountains, but the trails don't go there. This is a heavily used park, and if people start wandering off-trail, the vegetation would suffer greatly. I wasn't going to leave the trail.

Civilization can be seen from several spots on the trail, but seldom heard. It was eerily quiet in the park. We did not even hear birds. We stirred up a cove of quail, and they flew away silently.

Pollution can be seen obscuring mountains on the horizon.

I tried to make a "photosynth" of this mountain but I don't like the way it turned out. See my blog for details.

There's some Teddy Bear cholla.

Back on the trail that will take us back to the trailhead.

This trail is sometimes used by park vehicles, so it's very wide.

Not even HDR images turned out good today. This one shows that the brown cloud is visible even on cloudy days.

Pollution hides mountains on the horizon.

When we got back to the truck, this spider was walking nearby. It looks like a miniature tarantula. It refused to walk on Kyle's hand.