Saguaro National Park

We were at Saguaro National Park (east) yesterday morning for the Labor Day running event.

Sunrise

The blue moon of August 31st still looked almost full to me.

There were two races:

5K

8M

While the participants were running, I went for a little nature walk:

barrel cacti about ready to bloom

desert zinnia

saguaro cacti (white dot in the sky is the moon)

I liked the red fruit color against the green cactus pads...

prickly pear

and cheerful yellow flowers against blue-grey foliage:

bahia

A red caterpillar!

pipevine swallowtail caterpillar

More caterpillars on their host plant, the Southwestern Pipevine (Aristolochia watsonii).

A path near the visitor center:

My son put together a video of the start and finish of the 8-Mile run here.

And, it turns out that blogging friend, Warren was also at the event, arriving before sunrise to hike into the park to photograph the runners along the 8-mile course. Check out his beautiful images at Touch the wind.

Also linking to Our World Tuesday.  Have a great week!

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