While looking at pictures this morning, I had forgotten about this little spur-of-the-moment activity my husband and I did. About three years ago this week, we took our son up to his first year of college at Eastern Arizona College. My time flies! Anyway, on the way back down to the valley, my husband had this hair-brained idea to suddenly stop off at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park which is located near the historic copper mining town of Superior, roughly about 55 miles east of Phoenix. I wasn't happy about going there after helping move my son into his dorm(I was tired)and mainly 'cause it was really hot and humid out. Oh well, he won out. While we've never been there it actually was a nice experience to take our own personal tour without tour guides despite almost dying of thirst and killing over! The area was peaceful and quiet with beautiful plants, flowers and trees. So here's some pictures that we took while we were there.
Above is a picture of me on a bridge crossing a dry creek (how I wish there was water in it, I would have jumped in). Above on my main page there is a picture of some of the trees in the Arboretum. They were absolutely beautiful! To the right is a picture of my husband in the Cactus Garden. With a living collection of over 800 kinds of cacti, the Arboretum has become a center for the study of this family of desert plants. Most of the 800 species are displayed in the Cactus Garden. No, we didn't tour all of the 800 species thank goodness. Cacti are inseparably linked with the Sonoran Desert landscape; their many sizes and bizarre shapes may go far beyond our mental image of a typical cactus. There are skyscraper saguaros; paddle-shaped prickly pears; twisted, tree-like chollas; diminutive pincushions; globular barrels; and squat, branched hedgehogs. The Boyce Thompson hedgehog cactus was first identified at the Arboretum.
Now that I look back on these pictures, I'm glad that we did go to the Arboretum because in reality, we probably wouldn't have come here otherwise. If you want more information on this beautiful state park click here: arboretum.ag.arizona.edu
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