Tuesday, April 17, 2018. We visited Sabino Canyon National Park today. Pops had visited it before, when I was in KC, but he said I needed to see it as well. It was the perfect day for it since the weather was cooler. This park is a natural oasis in the desert located in Tucson’s Coronado National Forest. There is a stream that runs through it with cottonwood trees, palo verde trees, mesquite, and even some desert Gamble oaks that stay green all year.  There are a variety of trails that you can hike, from easy to challenging. We rode the narrated tram up to the top and then got off at Tram Stop #8. We hiked down a trail to the stream, to get pictures of the striated gneiss rocks. The dam is made from these rocks.  Then we rode the tram back down to #1 so we could hike Rattlesnake Trail and Esperosa Trail. Pops got a picture of a rock formation up on the ridge that looks like a giant desert tortoise (see first two pics).  In the loop near the visitor’s Center there was another rare crested saguaro. All in all we hiked about 4 miles and enjoyed every minute of it. The spectacular desert landscape around Tucson is incredible!