We honored the Tucson area and said our goodbyes by taking one last hike in Saguaro National Park. This park has a special draw for me. I could hike there every day and never get tired of it. We took a nature trail walk and also a longer hike to an old homestead called the Freeman Homestead. The park purchased the ranch in the 1950's. It sits in a low canyon with an arroyo winding through the area. The trails in this park are very well maintained and mostly easy to follow. It amazes me that anyone could make a living ranching in the desert scrub, but they did and still do. (P.S. I am about 3 weeks behind in my blogging, so we left Tucson about 3 weeks ago. Trying to catch up :P)

There is a really cool nursery in Tucson called "Desert Survivors Native Plant Nursery". Their slogan is: " Nurturing Plants and People since 1981". I'm stealing this from their website because I don't think I could say it any better: "A unique synergy of integrated employment for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities and a retail native plant nursery in a horticultural therapy setting, celebrating respect for all, human dignity, community, and a sense of place". I bought the cactus you see above from this nursery. We met the man who planted it and fostered it since 2017. He told us that it was a "good choice". A man of few words. I was happy we could participate (in a very small way) to a really cool and worthy cause.