Nature always puts on a grand show, and this trip was no exception ...
I'd gotten a tip on a big crested saguaro (Thanks, Harry!), so my daughter Kelly's fiancé Rob and I headed out to a canyon off the Beeline (Highway 87) in his FJ Cruiser:
Our route took us past this arm crest that I'd found on a 2014 outing with Joe P., so we paused for an updated photo:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa200/crest294.php
We also passed this Y-split saguaro — a hint that crests might be nearby!
We turned onto a rough Jeep track that Joe P. and I hadn't driven on our 2014 outing. Eventually we reached a spot on the road within walking distance of the crested saguaro I'd gotten a tip on. This area burned in a recent wildfire, and the flames came within 20 feet of the base of the saguaro, but luckily spared it:
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https://crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest617.php
On the highway heading home, we pulled over so I could take a telephoto shot of this very rare twin (shared-root) saguaro with crests on both trunks. Unfortunately, it looks like only one of the twin saguaros is still standing:
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My 2012 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa200/crest220.php
Another quick stop along the highway, and another downed crested saguaro ... I'd been photographing this arm crest since 2011:
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My 2011-2020 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest136.php
An animation of my photos taken between June 2011 and December 2020 at 6-month to 1-year intervals, showing the growth of the crested arm:
joeorman.net/Bizarre/Bizarre_Cristate_sequence.html
Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.
— John Muir
The next morning, Kelly, Rob, their two dogs and I all piled into the FJ and headed up the Beeline again, to a different canyon. But before leaving their neighborhood, I spotted this crested arm on a saguaro in a yard:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest618.php
The drive up the Beeline took us through the Four Peaks area. This saguaro forest was devastated by the 2020 Bush Fire; I haven't had the heart to go back in to check on any of the many crested saguaros it used to have:
As we were driving, I was able to snap a quick photo of this arm crest beside the highway — just good enough to tell that the crest is still there:
My 2013 close-up photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa200/crest253.php
Once we left the highway, the dirt road took us past another arm crest that I'd found on a 2014 outing with Joe P. — after more than 10 years, it's still not much to look at!
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa200/crest293.php
The Jeep trail up the canyon had this one tricky spot, which Joe P. and I had turned around at on that 2014 outing. But with Rob's expert driving, the FJ made it through fine:
Multi-Y arm growing from a broken-off saguaro:
We eventually made it out of the canyon and parked. Kelly and I took a short hike off the road, on which we passed this double-split saguaro:
We hiked through some areas that had burned the previous summer:
This was the destination for our hike ... a fancy top-crest I'd spotted a half-mile away from the road back in May. Unfortunately, the summer wildfire had since scorched one side of the saguaro (not the side seen in this photo), so it probably won't survive:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest613.php
When we returned to our parking spot, with my binos I was able to spot this arm crest that I'd previously found, and got a telephoto shot:
My 2017 close-up photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa400/crest440.php
I also spotted this suspicious shape peeking out from another saguaro. An arm crest? I must return some day to check it out!
On our drive back out through the canyon, I spotted this big top crest just off the road. Why hadn't any of us seen it on the way in? In any case, it was killed by the summer fire and probably will fall in the next few months:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest619.php
We came upon a desert tortoise taking a stroll, but it was startled by the approach of our vehicle and retreated into its shell:
The drive through the canyon had a beautiful stretch through a riparian area, with many of the trees still showing fall colors:
Nature in her green, tranquil woods heals and sooths all afflictions.
— John Muir
The next morning, I left on the solo portion of my trip, and drove the recently re-opened Apache Trail (Highway 88) northeast from Apache Junction. I frequently pulled over to glass the saguaro-covered hillsides, and at one point I spotted this arm crest and hiked up to it:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest620.php
Fish Creek Hill; this is where the landslide occurred that closed the Apache Trail for several years:
Fish Creek bridge:
If you know just where to park along the road, and just where to look with binoculars, you can see this big arm crest. My telephoto lens got an updated picture:
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My 2015 close-up photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa300/crest360.php
The Apache Trail ends at Theodore Roosevelt Dam:
On the other side of the dam, Roosevelt Lake and the Highway 188 bridge:
I found a nice campsite just at sunset, and later that night I photographed the Milky Way over Four Peaks:
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
— John Muir
Morning sunlight revealed the beautiful view from my campsite out over the lake:
I headed out to explore the nearby side roads; along one I got this view of the rugged Four Peaks:
Another side road that I'd driven several years earlier was now so severely eroded that it was impassible even to my Jeep, so I got out and walked (the crested saguaro I'm headed for is visible on the skyline):
If I hadn't been on foot, I never would have noticed this crested hedgehog cactus just off the road:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/hedgehog/crest27.php
I got to the crested saguaro and realized I'd driven to within 500 feet of it on my previous attempt to find it, but it had been hidden by a bump on the ridge! This ridge also burned in the 2020 Bush Fire, but this saguaro was spared:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest46.php
My next crested saguaro, which I'd had a tip on, was reached by a hike along the shoreline of the lake:
The hill I had to cross was made of limestone, which held many fossils:
The crested saguaro was located on a steep cliff above the water, so I could only photograph one side (the person who gave me the tip had photographed it from a boat):
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest47.php
I was soon back on the highway, which took me over a bridge with this view of the Salt River just before it empties into the lake:
As I've done many times before, I stopped to take updated photos of this crested saguaro (Bob's C1861) ... it's right next to the highway — which probably makes it one of the most-photographed crested saguaros!
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Photos dating back to 2009, when it was just starting to crest out:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest1.php
I turned off onto a dirt road, and paused to get a telephoto shot of this arm crest I'd found 11 years before:
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My 2013 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest15.php
After a few miles, I parked and hike up a steep hillside. My route took me right past this crested saguaro (Bob and Pat's C1990), so I took an updated photo:
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Photos dating back to 2012:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest14.php
But my objective this time was this magnificent top-crest (Bob's C1991), which I hadn't spotted last time. I seem to remember Bob was with a group of people, but he was the only one who made this steep scramble; I praise his hardiness because the climb winded me!
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Bob's 2012 photo:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest33.php
I was in a hurry to find a campsite before dark, so on the drive back out of the hills I just had time to pause and grab an updated telephoto shot of the "Statue of Liberty" crested saguaro (Bob and Pat's C1988) on the hillside above the road:
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Photos dating back to 2009:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest2.php
Before I could drive out of the canyon and find a campsite, I saw that the sun was setting:
The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.
— John Muir
A new day, and first light on Four Peaks:
Some closely-observed nature on my morning walk near my campsite ... a cholla skeleton:
... and the "fuzzy" arms of a live teddy-bear cholla:
I picked another dirt road to explore, and my binos picked out this arm crest which I hiked over to:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest48.php
On the next side road, I parked and hiked over a hill to check out a cluster of three crests Bob had found; luckily all three were still standing. The first (C1995):
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Bob's 2012 photo:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest35.php
Only a couple hundred feet away, the second (C1996):
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Bob's 2012 photo:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest36.php
... and about a quarter-mile away, the third (C1997):
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Bob's 2012 photo:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest37.php
I decided to follow a dirt road around the lake. A few telephoto shots from my Jeep ... this red-tailed hawk seems to have caught a smaller bird for lunch:
As I drove, I kept my eyes open for a roadside crest I'd found a few years earlier. I eventually spotted it and got this updated shot:
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My 2020 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest39.php
Another hawk-on-saguaro:
One final hike off the road before hitting the highway home — to this arm crest that I spotted down in a gully:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crgila/crest49.php
During the drive home, the sun set and day turned to night once again. And I thought back on all the wondrous things I'd seen in the last few days — nature in forms beyond imagining!
The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
— John Muir
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