Like many Crest Quests, this outing off of I-17 near the town on New River turned out to be a mix of revisiting known crests, and finding new ones ...
A week or so earlier, I'd finally figured out the location of a big top-crest, a photo of which I'd pulled off the web year ago. As I started hiking the trail to it, this 3-way Y-arm saguaro caught my eye — a sign that crests may be nearby!
Sure enough, a few hundred feet later I came to the top crest, and it was an awesome sight in person:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/cryavapai300/crest398.php
Nearby, another irregular saguaro arm:
Also nearby, a very nice "fish tail" crest:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/cryavapai300/crest399.php
As I continued to loop around the area, I found another saguaro with an irregular pattern:
... and a Y-tip saguaro:
... and another Y-tip saguaro in the distance which looked like it may be cresting. I made a note of its location; one day I'll check it out close up:
Back on the road, my route took me past a property with a known crested saguaro, so I stopped and took an updated telephoto shot from the fenceline:
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Photos dating back to 2019:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest509.php
... and here's another updated telephoto shot of a crested saguaro on private property (many years ago, Joe P. told me he'd gotten run off by the landowner!):
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Photos dating back to 2011:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest135.php
One more updated telephoto shot, this one a wee arm crest in someone's yard:
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2017 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa400/crest443.php
Hopefully this wasn't an omen of the fate that befalls crest-hunters in these parts!
Soon it was time to make camp and enjoy the sunset show:
Soon the waxing crescent moon became prominent in the darkening sky:
... and the twilight painted the western horizon with pastel colors:
It may be a mistake to mix different wines, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
— Bertolt Brecht
The next day, I set off to hike into a saguaro-rich valley I'd spotted on a recent group Jeep run in the nearby hills. As I began the hike, I spotted a glomerate saguaro:
I was dismayed to see invasive stinknet (Oncosiphon piluliferum) covering the desert floor:
A Y-split saguaro — and we all know what that means:
I realized that several years earlier I'd documented a big top crest in this valley, so I detoured to check up on it. Unfortunately, I found only the skeleton still standing:
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2019 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest510.php
The most common litter I find in remote areas: a mylar balloon (yes, I carried it out):
As I looped back to my Jeep, I noticed the moon had risen over a nearby hill:
This fallen giant had come out by the roots:
After returning to my Jeep, I continued to prowl the local backroads, saying to myself that I had to find at least one new crest today. So when I finally spotted this nice little arm crest next to one road, it "made my day"!
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest622.php
I was surprised to see ocotillo in bloom in January:
On one road I'd driven before, I paused to check out a not-quite-crested growth I'd photographed before, but found it broken off of the saguaro and decaying on the ground:
Here's what it looked like in 2019 ... a glomerate or a broken-off crest?
This isn't the silhouette of a crested saguaro on a distant ridge — it's a hot air balloon!
I decided to camp at the same spot, and enjoyed another sunset through the saguaros:
Sooner or later, everything old is new again.
— Stephen King
At sunrise, the day is reborn:
I continued to drive the roads on the desert's edge. On one street I spotted several crested specimens in the yard of a landscaping company; this is a crested dwarf blue myrtle (whortleberry) cactus:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/cereus/crest21.php
Nearby I spotted another glomerate saguaro:
... and more ocotillos in bloom:
A 3-way Y in the distance ... frustratingly close to being crested!
I decided to pick up a powerline road cutting through the hills, and followed it for several miles. At one point, a couple of cows trotted in front of my slow-moving Jeep for several hundred yards before they moved to the side and gave me "the eye":
I'd driven this road five years earlier, and had found a couple of crests. So I paused to get an updated telephoto shots of this ring crest ...
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2019 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest518.php
... and this top crest:
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2019 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest519.php
This photo shows how close the two crests are to each other:
At one point I decided to park and hike around a saguaro-rich hill. I came across this yellow and red baby saguaro — have never noticed one like it before — not sure if it's variegated or if something else is going on:
I heard a loud braying on a nearby slope, and eventually spotted the burro that was protesting my presence:
My decision to hike around this hill paid off; I found two arm crests! Here's #1:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest623.php
... and here's #2:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa600/crest624.php
Gradually the road worsened; this wrecked car at the bottom on one steep climb was another bad omen:
Eventually the road got too bad even for my Jeep, so I turned around and found another road out of the hills. That road passed a saguaro with two arm crests I'd previously discovered, so I grabbed some updated photos (this is the bigger of the two crests):
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2018 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa400/crest496.php
The next hill over had a tall two-headed crested saguaro that Joe P and I had found back in 2011; I was saddened to see that one of the "heads" had broken off:
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2011 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest127.php
Close by was this split-top saguaro; I've been keeping an eye on it ever since that day with Joe P, hoping it will crest out:
As I made my way out to I-17 for the drive home, these burros made it clear that I'd overstayed my welcome!
Just as each trip around the sun traces the same path but brings different experiences, my first Crest Quest of the new year had been a delightful mix of the old and the new — more threads woven into the multi-colored tapestry of memory.
For old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should old acquaintance be forgot
For the sake of auld lang syne?
— Auld Lang Syne (Traditional)
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