Champion Saquaro

[tracker]

Does anyone on this forum know where the champion saquaro is on the dutchman trail? I know it's past Bluff Springs. Any GPS coords?

[jmzblond]

Hey Tracker, I think Arizonaheat is familiar w/ that Saguaro. You might want to send him a pm about it.

[cactuscat]

It's maybe a mile past Bluff Springs, on the left if you're heading towards LaBarge. You can't miss it! It's well worth the trip, and I like your name for it - Champion Saguaro, that's cute. I'll be going back to pay my respects when it's blooming/fruiting - I really want to taste the yummy fruit from that beauty!

[azrocks]

How do you get fruit off a saguaro, especially a champion one that I suppose
is extra tall ?

[arizonaheat]

You pick it up off the ground. And yes this is a champion saguaro, it is actually in a registry, has at least 57 arms and is one of the largest if not the largest in exsistence. Fortuantely it is well beyond the distance most people hike. They have determined in the Supes 90% of the hikers never venture more than slightly over 2 miles from the trailhead.

http://hikearizona.com/phoZOOM.php?ZIP=5018

[Sredfield]

They have determined in the Supes 90% of the hikers never venture more than slightly over 2 miles from the trailhead.

Thank you God!

[joebartels]

...in the Supes 90% of the hikers never venture more than slightly over 2 miles from the trailhead.

thank goodness for small miracles!

[arizonaheat]

My sentiments exactly!!!!!!!

That bit of information came directly from Tom Kollenborn.

[montezumawell]

They have determined in the Supes 90% of the hikers never venture more than slightly over 2 miles from the trailhead.

That's pretty much the way it is everywhere, even including National Parks, etc. Sure is that way around Sedona! We can't remember the Grand Canyon statistics but the percentage of visitors who actually HIKE anywhere, no matter how small the distance is SOOOO small. And then the percentage of hiker who go farther than a few switchbacks down the BA is ever smaller and so on.


Well, we came here to post this link:

http://www.championtrees.org/champions/index.htm

This is the easiest place to find out about Arizona's Champion Trees. We don't think a saguaro is considered a tree since it is a succulent but there are people who are really "into" figuring out the tallest, biggest, fattest, oldest, etc. trees and mostly like everything else, too.

Actually, getting "into" champion trees is quite fun. We sometimes carry one of those funny measuring tapes that forestry people use to "cruise" timber sales. It shows you at a glance just what the diameter of a tree is. We like to find the biggest tree of each major species in a given area. We don't care if it's the biggest one in the state or the nation. In spite of what a lot of people think, there are still a LOT of really big ponderosa trees out in the forest. I think the biggest we have found so far was over 5 feet in diameter.

Well, that's our two cents worth.

J&S

[arizonaheat]

Cool link on the champion trees, thanks.

[Rodney]

They have determined in the Supes 90% of the hikers never venture more than slightly over 2 miles from the trailhead.

We hiked the Peralta Trail to Weaver's Needle crosscut the other day and the trail was pretty crowded...till we crossed Fremont Saddle, then we only met 4 people on the trail to the crosscut. We did run across a 5th...but, he/she was a little different: http://www.azwilderness.com/webphotos/1864.jpg

[desertlavender]

We did this loop Nov. 26-28 and did not see another soul for more than 24 hours. Terrapin Trail sees so little traffic now that some sections are totally overgrown with holly.