Our next destination was the Tucson area. We were interested in the saguaros in the area, but the main draw came from my ability to make appointments for us to get our COVID vaccines – yay! A lot of states had just opened up vaccines to all adults and Arizona was one of only two states to not require proof of state residency, which was great for our nomadic life.
Finding a (cheap) appealing place to stay was a little difficult, so we ended up about an hour out of town in Las Cienegas BLM. It was a large tract of land, rolling hills backed by mountains and home to a lot of cattle. As it was the weekend, there were RVs scattered around on most small roads off the main road, so when we found an open area, we settled in. Unfortunately, sharing the land with cattle meant that the area was very dusty and fairly heavy on cow patties. Ok to park, but not really a place where you wanted to spend much time. We spent one night and then moved to a less grazed, more open part of the land.
Yep, that’s a cow patty on a stick. 
We ventured into Tucson for our shots and groceries and realized it would indeed take an hour each way to do anything in or around the city. The next day, we made our way toeastern section of Saguaro National Park, knowing that there were some hiking options, but there was also just a nice drive to take, depending on how we were feeling. Mike got the worst of the side effects of the vaccine (as we expected) and didn’t feel great. We took it easy, taking the slow drive through the park and popping out here and there to explore a little.
The next day we headed to the western section of the park, feeling a little more energetic. Unfortunately, our attempt at a hike was a little disappointing – walking in a wash meant that we didn’t have great views and our sandals kept filling with tiny rocks. We decided to make our way forward by car instead of on foot.
There were so many more saguaros in this section of the park. We read about a couple of big freezes that had caused a lot of saguaros to die on the eastern section, but the western section did not seem to have been hit as hard. We assumed the elevation was a little lower and warmer as everything in the western section seemed a little further along in blooming. We got to see a few saguaros blooming here while they were just starting to develop buds in the eastern section.
We benefited from some elevation differences too. The BLM land we camped on sat about 2000 feet higher than Tucson, which meant about a ten degree difference in temperature. When it was 85 in Tucson, we were enjoying 75 degrees in Las Cienegas, which made a huge difference as we headed into work days for Mike. I braved the heat to run errands in Tucson – getting the brakes checked on the truck (only needed the rotors machined), doing laundry and such.
