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The next morning, I set out for the Tucson Mountains (west of Tucson) and planned to hike
to the summit of Golden Gate Mountain, the largest peak on the left. |
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Up on a pointed hill not far from Gates Pass, I snapped this shot of Golden Gate Mountain. |
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Near the beginning of the hike, the morning sun shined perfectly on this large prickly pear cactus! |
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Wowwee! Look at all those saguaros!
It was somewhere around this point that I turned around. The Golden Gate Trail pretty much disintegrated near a few
boulders about 50% of the way up.
The trail is poorly marked with almost no signage except at the very beginning; I plan to return, hike to the summit and
give a much more detailed report about how to safely reach the summit. (Perhaps some trail building is in order too!) ;). |
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It was my first morning in Arizona and of course, I focused quite a bit on photographing the saguaros. |
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I captured the same saguaro with six arms on one side from two very different angles. |
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Prickly pear cacti pretty much grow like weeds out in this part of southern Arizona! |
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Back at a pointed hill near Gates Pass, this is the view
looking out towards the valley. The area out there with the few buildings is the Old Tucson Studios. |
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Here's one photo as my friend Joel and I were exiting the
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. I'm telling you, if you love desert, this particular area (encompassing Saguaro National Park West) is
definitely worth visiting! :) |