What is the Crest Quest but a journey into the mysterious? One never knows what one will find in addition to a crested saguaro, or even that alone!
After making a quick late-night camp just off the freeway, my first excursion of the day was a long hike into the wilderness on an old road that's now closed to vehicles. Where will this road lead me? If nothing else, into a beautiful and isolated corner of the desert:
I didn't find any crested cactus on the hike, but this red-tailed hawk brought a familiar burst of emotion. If only I had your eyes, and your ability to soar — how I envy you these things!
As I continued my drive around the mountains, I saw several Y-split saguaros ... sometimes a clue that a crest is near:
On my next hike, my spotting scope picked out what I thought might be a crested arm about a half-mile away. But I determined it was a glomerate mass and decided not to hike out to it:
From one hill, I spotted what may have been a crested saguaro, a couple miles away at the limit of my spotting scope and telephoto lens:
I debated whether it was worth the time to check out ... in the end the pull of the mysterious won out! I found a way to drive around the other side and hike back to it; turned out to be just a broken-off saguaro:
Another night's camp under the infinite artwork that is the night sky, then back on the quest. One dirt road brought me to an abandoned paved section of highway, where I found scattered artifacts. What was this place? The wind whispered no answer. From the scant clues, I guessed that it was probably a service station. This looked like some kind of fountain made out of colorful rocks:
And two cars, in barely-restorable condition:
From the ancient to the modern. Atop one hill, I took this telephoto shot of the Palo Verde nuclear power plant, far in the distance:
Beside another dirt road, I found this saguaro. After much internal debate, I decided to classify it as "crested" — it would turn out to be the only crested saguaro I'd find on the entire trip::
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest589.php
Another Y-split saguaro that I passed:
On another hike, I detoured far out onto the desert floor just to confirm that this multiple-Y saguaro wasn't hiding a crest:
Who says that saguaros don't grow arms close to the ground???
Along one road I spotted a saguaro with a golden (variegated) arm:
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On my last hike before heading for home, I spotted another glomerate mass:
Thus ended my adventure into the mysterious. Like I do at the end of all trips, I felt a twinge of sadness at its ending. I may not have found as many crested saguaros as hoped, but what I found instead had its own beauty.
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