75 Photos That Will Have You Planning A Trip To See Saguaro Cactus Right Now
There are affiliate links in here. I get a small commission if you purchase through them at no extra cost to you.
I have about a thousand pictures from Saguaro National Park and i don’t know if I’ll ever be able to use them all here or share them all in my helpful posts, so today I’m going to share a ton of them just for funsies.
If you’re looking for tips for visiting Saguaro, you won’t find that here but I will have that coming soon. This is really just for fun and to share pictures that I love. I haven’t done a post like this in probably years because SeO iS sO iMpOrTaNt and no one reads blogs anymore.
I know SEO is important and I know people still read blogs. You’re here, after all, aren’t you? And one of my goals for the next year is to share more fun posts like this because just SEO friendly things is boring.
I know you’ll want to make a trip to Arizona to see Saguaros in real life after seeing these because they’re amazing, but here are a few things and ways to bring them home to you in the meantime:
A saguaro photo print (one of these pictures would be perfect! If you’re ever interested in getting a photo on here printed, reach out and we can work something out!)
There are tons of pictures in here and I’ll add captions to share a little more about each picture. It’s a fun way to get a little more detail that I might not otherwise share.
National Park Goodies
If you’re planning to visit three or more national parks within a year from your trip, definitely get the America the Beautiful pass. It will save you money in the long run if you’re going to more than three parks in a year. Buy the pass here.
If you’re planning on doing a lot of hiking on your trip, or even at home, check out AllTrails! This is my favorite app to find, keep track of, and track my hiking activity. And it’s FREE! Sign up here.
Doing a road trip? Want an adventure? Consider an Escape Campervan Rental! It’s a great way to see the parks and is perfect for couples and small (but close) friend groups. Book a campervan here!
Get yourself a National Park journal for all of the NPS sites (400+!) to keep track of your travels!
Consider reading some of these books set in national parks before your big trip, on your adventure, or once you get home to take you back to the parks until next time.
How many types of cactus can you see here? I see at least four!Branches of the ocotillo, a huge spiny plant all over southern Arizona and west Texas. I love seeing ocotillos up close. Sometimes they have these little green leaves on them, too.Spines and ribs of a saguaro cactus. I love getting super close to cactus and feeling the spines.The Valley View Overlook trail. This is one of the most popular hikes in the park offering sprawling valley views (who would have guessed?)A view from the end of the Valley View Overlook trail and lots of cute cactus nubbins (that’s what I call the little cactus ball arm things)The view looking down from the end of the Valley View Overlook trail. Look at how many saguaros there are just right here!An orange flower blooming on an ocotillo branch. You can see some other blooms in the background.The picture perfect three armed saguaro. Whenever you see them drawn, this is what they look like. I was excited to see this one.Just a view of tons of cactus on a hill. I’ll never get sick of seeing so many saguaros.A cute little hedgehog cactus! These are a little harder to spot, but they’re all over the park, too. Every time I saw a saguaro with a lot of arms I had to stop and count all of them. They can have 30+ arms sometimes! This one isn’t that high but it’s still very impressive.More cactus spines and ribs up closeA cutie little coyote on the side of the road. We actually saw two here and hopped out to walk around a little bit here. I loved this area on the west side a lot.Lots of different types of cactus alone the Sendero Esperanza trail before the Dobe Wash trail split. I love how no matter where you look here you can see so many different kinds of cactus.If you’ve ever wondered what the end of a saguaro arm looks like, wonder no more! I wanted to touch this so bad but I also didn’t want tons of tiny hair-like spines in my fingers. I don’t know if that would happen but I didn’t want to find out.Chollas, prickly pears, and Saguaros, oh my!Some brown spined prickly pear cactus with a tall boi in the backgroundI love these two cactus a lot, especially next to each other. They’re just perfect.A buckhorn cholla cactus up close and personal. You don’t want to bump into these bad boys. I brushed against one (not sure exactly which one is was) and was pulling tiny spines out of my knee for like ten minutes.Barrel cactus spines up close. I won’t lie, the spot where it attaches to the plant really freaks me out. I don’t think I’m trypophobic (10/10 would not recommend looking at Google images there) but I sure don’t like this (but I also love it)Just a frumpy barrel cactus that I loveTwo cute little cactus nubbins up closeAnother saguaro I love that’s tall with lots of nubbins, a cholla, and some prickly pearsThe nubbins in front of the sky is one of my favorite ways to look at saguarosOn the right between the two baseball bat looking saguaros is palo verde! The bark on those is all green giving it it’s name. Plus two cute barrel cactus in front.Lots of woodpecker holes in these impressively long saguaro arms. I love seeing all the holes in the cactus. Sometimes owls use them, too.Here is the whole cactus pictured above. This one is one of my favorites, for sure. I know I say that a lot but it really is.Just a nice sturdy saguaro surrounded by Sonoran foliage that I also love.I just love saguaros! I don’t know how many times I’ve said “look at that one!” in this park. It’s a lot.More spines and ribs up close. It has the same weird holes as above but I like this one a lot more. The perfect baseball bat shaped saguaro. Yes, it’s still a saguaro without arms. I’m not sure how tall this one is but it’s probably pretty close to the same age as me! (29, in case you were wondering) Also, a ten year old saguaro might only be 1.5 inches tall! That’s it!I also just love this view. I love the armless cactus and the extremely tall ones and this is both of those. A spiral petroglyph at the Signal Hill petroglyph site. They’re not the most impressive petroglyphs I’ve seen but they are cool and the views here are very good.Some bighorn sheep petroglyphs in the same areaEven more petroglyphs at the Signal Hill site. There are quite a few of them here.Hows that for a bat!? I love how the ocotillo here is just right in front of the saguaro, how it lines up perfectly.A flock of little barrel cactus all growing together. I love this little cluster so much. Is there any cactus I don’t love? No.Baby barrel, prickly pear, ocotillo, saguaro, and maybe a cholla on the right. I love this park.The more I see the ocotillos, the more I like them. When I first saw them I wasn’t that impressed but I love them now.The view from the Signal Hill petroglyph trail. This was probably my favorite view in the park.An ocotillo branch up super close. I love the greenish yellow part of these. The Signal Hill view again. I love the mountains in the background and that you can really see the cactus in front. The Valley View Overlook is a good view but it’s hard to see the cactus.A cluster of little bat cactus. They’re saguaros, bat cactus isn’t a thing but they look like bats. Sports, right?The blooming ocotillo and saguaros in this are just perfect. I’ve said it a lot in this post but I really love this photo.The view looking up at the Signal hill petroglyphs. If you look closely you can see them on the boulders.This is one of like, three pictures I took on the east side of the park. I did not like the east side (i’ll give it another shot) but I love the west side.I think this is the Sendero Esperanza trail and if it’s not I honestly don’t know what it is hahaThis is definitely the view of the valley from the Sendero Esperanza trail. We did this to the Dobe Wash trail, went up that, then back to the car.A bunch of teddy bear cholla with the prickly pear and saguaros. I love the teddy bear chollas (are you surprised?) but those you really, really don’t want to brush against or they’ll be going with you.It’s a little hard to tell but you can see the ocotillo is really green! It has a bunch of those little leaves on it.The mountain view from the upper part of the Dobe Wash trail.Saguaros against the side of the hill on the Dobe Wash trail.The view looking down at the valley from the uppermost part of the Dobe Wash trail. We didn’t see anyone else up on this part.I love this bat behind the prickly pears.This is another one of my favorite pictures from my time in the park.A nubbin halo for an angelic cactusSurprised Pikachu face and how many arms!? He’s probably shocked at how many arms he has. How many can you count?Another view of shocked cactus with an impressive palo verde next to it.Another view of the end of a saguaro arm. Do these little white fuzzies come off and get stuck if you touch them?LOOK AT HOW TALL THIS IS! AND HOW MANY ARMS IT HAS! I literally made us pull over outside the park to look at this one, that’s how much I love it. LOOK AT IT!And look how tall this cholla is on the right! Obviously it’s not saguaro tall, but for a cholla, I’m impressed. I love seeing the green in front of the red dirt. The Witch Cactus, that’s all.This is BY FAR the tallest armless cactus I’ve seen. LOOK AT IT! Remember what I mentioned before, how many times I said that in the park? This is what it’s like being there.And this! IT’S. SO. TALL. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!A very impressive ocotillo, I think on the Valley View Overlook trailA view of the mountain along the Valley View Overlook trail with the perfect three armed cactus.Another perfect alignment of ocotillo and saguaro with a bonus nubbin.One of my favorite pictures from the park along the Desert Discovery trail.A Christmas Cholla! You can guess why it’s named that based on the colors.LOOK. AT. IT.A valley view between two perfect bats with a surprising number of bats between them, now that I really look at it.A closer look at a teddy bear cholla, I think alternately called a jumping cholla, because if you rub against it, the cactus balls come off and will stick to you.The perfect bat.and finally, one last LOOK AT IT!
Have you been to Saguaro National Park? What did you do there? What did you think of it? Which side do you like better?
Oh, that’s awesome! I’m actually just way behind on posting, we were there in March and October haha. I hope you enjoyed it, though! That would have been funny to run into each other there
We were just there also! Wish we could have run into each other. First of two, another coming next week: https://daringdayhikes.home.blog/2022/01/07/wasson-peak-saguaro-np-west/
Oh, that’s awesome! I’m actually just way behind on posting, we were there in March and October haha. I hope you enjoyed it, though! That would have been funny to run into each other there
Great photos, btw!
And thank you! 🙂