The Saguaro cactus is the largest cactus in the USA.  They can live to be over 200 years old, but don’t typically get their arms until they are 75 years old. These cacti grow only in the Sonoran Desert.

The bajada Loop Drive contains several short little trails. We began at the Valleyview Overlook Trail.  It is less than a mile roundtrip and had great views of Saguaro from the peak.  It was really windy at the top though… I almost lost my hat over the cliff. We did witness a wedding proposal though.

Our next trail was the Signal Hill Trail where you can see the petroglyphs. The petroglyphs is rock art created by the Hohokam tribe almost 1,000 years ago.  There was also a neat little table and chairs with a grill area on the way up.  This trail was even shorter than the 1st one.

The plan for the last trail was the Desert Discovery Trail but earlier we hiked a trail similar by accident so we skipped that one. A half a day in Saguaro was plenty of time for us to see the sights.  I have a great photo below standing next to a 3 1/2 story high Saguaro cactus.

We then headed towards the Casa Grande National Monument.  It was strange that we passed a city, Casa Grande which had several exits, but the monument was actually in the city of Coolidge.  The monument was pretty cool. The mystery of this national site is that people don’t know whether it was a gathering place for the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People’s farming community or simply a waypoint marker in an extensive system of canals and trading partners.  After leaving Casa Grande, we grabbed a quick lunch and went to the Queens Creek Olive Mill about 30 minutes from the resort.  

We then came back to the resort and spent the rest of the day at the pool and playing games.  We had planned on Mexican for dinner since it was our last night, but we all agreed it was going to be tough to beat the Taco Guild from earlier in the week.  Well on the way to a Mexican restaurant, we passed a large lot of lights and a bunch of food trucks.  We decided to pull in and have a variety of food for dinner this evening.

We returned to the resort to pack and we head back to Cincy tomorrow.  Another great family trip full of amazing memories.