Tumamoc Hill

I woke up this morning at 5:00am (8:00am EST) and left my Great Aunt Lila’s house at 5:30 in order to hike up Tumamoc Hill. Tumamoc is a hill that the University of Arizona has a number of observation posts on. It’s right in the center of Tucson on the west side. They use the hill in order to study the wildlife and the plant life. They let people climb it as long as they are done and off the hill by 7:30am.
Going on a hike was one of the things that I really wanted to do while I was here. This fulfilled that desire. It was lovely weather, there was a slight breeze and I got to hike while the sun was coming up. There were many people that climb this hill and my aunt pointed out a number of who have lost hundreds of pounds.
I will admit that I have a love affair with the Saguaro Cactus. I think that they are the most fascinating things. They are very old. They take a long time to grow. From what I understand is that they need to be at least 70 years old in order to grow an arm. Today I saw one that had at least 15 arms. WOW!!! There were so many of them on the mountain along with the Paolo Verde (green trees) they are fully green, no leaves, just green bark and sticks. I love the diversity of God’s creation. How He causes things to grow. There are these seeds that are on the ground here that only grow and bloom every fifty years when the water level reaches 1 inch below ground. Then all you see is this gorgeous color. It shows how God does have a plan, he plants those seeds and he brings the correct amount of rain every fifty years in order for them to bloom.

I’ve included a link to some more of the pictures I took from the top of the mountain. You can really see all the mountains and the valley that Tucson is in.