Saguaro National Park, Day 1

We left TwentyNine Palms and drove through Joshua Tree NP to the south entrance.  It is a real contrast to see the high desert where the joshua trees grow and go down to the low(er) desert where different plants grow.  The Cholla Cactus Garden was worth a stop.  The Ocotillo bushes were not in bloom as they were the last time we were here.
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Then it was off to Tucson and Saguaro National Park.  We mostly drove along Interstate 10 for the rest of the day, and reached Saguaro NP just after 5 pm.  Of course, the visitor center closes at 5 PM, but there was a volunteer who took a few minutes to provide us with an orientation to the park.  Then we drove to Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Mountain County Park.  What a great campground! We were in the midst of saguaro and other cactus and it hardly seemed like we were in a developed campground.

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The sunsets from our campground were excellent.  This photo was taken from the campsite, with the Saguaro cactus and ocotillo bush in silhouette.
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Gilbert Ray campground was great.  There were no showers but there was electricity at each site and we were prepared for this.  Even though it was hot, we at least had air conditioning, just like we planned.  We had a decent Verizon 4G signal.