Spectacular saguaro specimens on Sabino Canyon trail

Saguaro National Park usually gets boasting rights when it comes to Arizona’s iconic cactus — but a short, easy trail in Sabino Canyon northeast of Tucson is home to its own prickly trove of spectacular saguaro specimens.

Standouts along the Bajada Loop Nature Trail include a rare crested saguaro and an old, enormous survivor with one twisted, still-living limb resting on the ground and a prickly pear cactus growing out of its trunk.

The 0.3-mile trail — near the Sabino Canyon visitor center at 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road — is often bypassed by so-called serious hikers because it’s short, flat and anything but a challenge. But those who give it a try often return — sometimes sharing its sights with visitors.

“On a very short walk from the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center, a variety of saguaros can be found on the Bajada Loop Nature Trail,” said Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the Coronado National Forest, which manages the canyon.

“Young cacti are emerging from beneath protective nurse trees,” Schewel said. “Mature giants with exposed holes hint at cavities within serving as nests for Gila woodpeckers and northern flickers. During the summer, saguaros sport Arizona’s state flower, a creamy yellow and white blossom to be followed by succulent red fruits which attract a number of birds and insects.”

Schewel noted that the large crested, or cristate, saguaro is growing toward the northwestern curve of the short loop trail and includes “many small arms protruding from a twisted, swirled crown.”

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“Such cacti are rare, each is an individual, and this specimen provides great photo opportunities from all angles,” she said.

A short distance away is the towering old saguaro with one limb twisting improbably down from its trunk — reaching all the way to the ground. A small prickly pear cactus appears to be surviving, if not thriving, in its perch on the saguaro’s trunk.

Botanists and some casual observers have come across other examples of prickly pears hitching a ride on saguaros or other large cacti — but it’s fairly unusual.

Elsewhere along the trail, walkers pass a cluster of three saguaros growing side by side and all but touching one another.

Other eye-catching specimens stand tall in the distance, stabbing at the sky against the backdrop of the Catalina Mountains.