Last Sunday, I took a drive toward Tucson and visited Saguaro National Park.  The desert was in full bloom as I took a 6 mile morning hike along the Hugh Norris trail ridgeline in the western section of the park. The first set of photos shows the white flowers of the massive saguaro cacti. 

Further up the trail, I came to some prickly pear cacti.

I crossed the path of few small lizards.

The camouflage of these lizards is incredible.

The next stop was flowers on different species of cholla cacti.

I could not identify these two desert plants but they still had beautiful blooms.

Some views from the ridgeline.

After the hike, I drove through Tucson into Coronado National Forest and the Santa Catalina Mountains.  I drove up to about 9,000 feet where it was dramatically cooler than the desert below. Cacti to pine trees and aspens in about 30 minutes...

I finished the day at the eastern section of Saguaro National Park for sunset.

Lastly, looking back toward Tucson as the sunset gives way to the night.