Tom's National Park Adventure

Day 3 Saguaro National Park 1/14/26

Today was my last day to explore the park, before I start to head east towards home.

I decided to set my sights high! Literally and figuratively. I picked out the Sendero Esperanza / Hugh Norris Trail to the highest point in the western district of the park. I hiked to the top of Wadden Peak. The elevation is 4,687 ft. That in itself isn’t all that impressive. However the vertical gain on this hike was over 1800 ft. Again not too impressive either, but it kicked my butt all the same! It took me around five hours to complete the hike and I hiked a little over eight miles. By the time I got back to Ethyl….. I was plum tuckered out!

Here are some shots from the hike.

The trail is crowded with vegetation on either side. You have to make sure you don’t brush up against the plants. There are “spiky” things that will attach themselves to you. It can be extremely painful if your flesh comes in contact with them.

It’s all about the water. This area gets precious little water. The plants and animals all need this scarce resource. The plants don’t move so they grab what they can when they can. They have built in defense mechanisms to help them keep the water and to protect them from the animals that try to get the moisture by consuming the plant.

Once I finally reached the top of Wesson Peak I decided to take a picture in all four compass directions

The way back didn’t take nearly as long as the way up! You get a totally different perspective going down!

It has been a wonderful few days here. I could come back and spend many more days doing a different set of hikes each day. It time for me to head for home.