Desert plants star at Yuma Conservation Garden

Duck pond at Yuma Conservation Garden

Vegetation from the Lower Sonora Desert fills 28 acres along one of Yuma, Arizona’s, major streets. The Yuma Conservation Garden also has a nice collection of antique farm machinery and a large pond filled with swimming ducks and geese.

The garden got its start in the 1950s, and was taken over by the Yuma, Laguna and Wellton-Mohawk Valley Natural Resource Conservation Districts in 1987. The garden’s mission is to encourage environmental education that involves protection of the area’s natural resources.

Dirt and gravel trails take visitors around the garden, which includes a variety of cactus from the U.S. and Mexican sides of the Sonora Desert. The list of cacti includes the saguaro, cholla, prickly pear and pine cone.

Though the garden is in an urban setting, visitors may see long-tailed lizards, rabbits, coyotes, roadrunners and night hawks. The garden also has a resident desert tortoise, the 75-pound Baloo.

Yuma Conservation Garden

The centerpiece of the garden, however, is the pond where visitors can sit on benches and watch a variety of geese and ducks swim by; waterfowl are a mixture of wild and domestic. Tall palm trees surround the pond, creating a relaxing view.

The garden has been designated an urban wildlife area by both the state Land, and Fish and Game departments.

As an educational center, the garden hosts upwards of 5,000 students every year. It is certified by the Arizona Department of Education for students in kindergarten through the 12^th grade.

The garden is located next to the Pima County Fairgrounds at 2520 E. 32^nd Street. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays November through April. Admission is free.

More photos of Yuma Conservation Garden can be seen on my Youtube channel, http://youtu.be/Pa8QqQDuXb4

National park honors iconic cactus

Saguaro National Park landscape

The Saguaro cactus stand tall and proud in this section of the Sonora Desert, reminding us of fir and pine trees in a forest.

Saguaro National Park was established in 1933 to protect and preserve these symbols of the American West as this cactus is found only in a small area of the desert that surrounds Tucson, Arizona. Tucson itself separates the national park. The west section is known as the Tucson Mountain District while the east park section is known as Rincon Mountain District.

View from the visitor center

The west district that we visited isn’t just desert, but also contains mountains more than 4,600 feet high. (Mountains more than 8.600 feet high can be found at Rincon.) Desert scrub and grass lands lie at the base of the mountains.

The Saguaro is the nation’s largest cactus and they’re visible almost as far as the eye can see. Other varieties of cactus, including the ocotillo, can be found there, though the Saguaro dominates the landscape. Its blossoms are the Arizona state flower.

Wild animals, including coyotes, desert tortoises and a variety of rattlesnakes, can be seen in the park.

The west section offers a five-mile gravel loop road giving visitors a glimpse of the park. There also are hiking trails, though walkers should be on the lookout for rattlesnakes during the hot months. Hikers also should be sure to carry lots of water with them.

Tucson Mountain visitor center

The park is open to vehicles from sunrise to sunset daily, though hikers and bikers can use the park around the clock. Camping is not available. Both park sections have visitor centers that are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

The Tucson Mountain District might be considered the poor man’s Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. That museum, located just a couple of miles away, charged admission of almost $20 per person per visit in 2014. The national park charges just $10 per vehicle for a weekly pass. The landscape isn’t that much different, though the desert museum several indoor exhibits in air-conditioned buildings.

The Tucson Mountain District can be reached by taking the Speedway exit off Interstate 10 in Tucson and heading south. Follow the signs to the desert museum, only keep going past the museum turnoff.

For more photos of the park, please see my Saguaro National Park slideshow.

Yuma: sand dunes, but where's the ocean?

Yuma Sand Dunes from the freeway

Yuma is famous for its hot summer temperatures and its mild winter climate that attractions tens of thousands of snowbirds annually. It also is famous as the home to one of the world’s largest inland sand masses.

Though the sand dunes are located in California, about 20 miles west of Yuma, they’re still named after America’s hottest summer city. Motorists on Interstate 8 drive through miles of the dunes on their way to San Diego. There’s a rest area between the east and west bound lanes of the freeway, but there is no dunes access. The dunes, along the eastern edge of the Imperial Valley, run for more than 40 miles.

The dunes are a national recreation area managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They’re very popular with off-road enthusiasts. More than 80,000 acres are open to off-road motorized vehicles in the dunes, mainly starting at Highway 78 and running south to the freeway.  Motorized vehicles are not allowed in the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness, which is accessible only on foot or horseback. Vehicle camping is allowed in all areas open to vehicles, though some spots are available on a first-come basis.

The Yuma Sand Dunes are popular with movie-makers who shot films here as early as 1913. Films made here include Star Wars, Scorpion King and Jarhead.