Tucson in three parts

One of the things that makes Tucson an interesting city is that it is sandwiched between two units of the same national park. Our plan, which was a good one, was to visit the eastern part, spend the night in the city, and then visit the western part on the way out. The name, by the way, is pronounced "sa-whar-o" and refers to this famous species of cactus:

As opposed to a teddy bear cholla, which looks like this:
Here I am admiring a palo verde tree... I am a sucker for their smooth, vibrantly green bark. I believe the name means "green stick" in Spanish. There were many striking specimens, each one greener than the last...
Somewhere on our trip we saw an animal by the road that I assumed was a wild boar, but the behavior didn't fit... We later realized that it was a javelina.
Many of our questions were answered that day at Saguaro east... What left us perplexed was why the flag at the visitor center was half mast. Only later did we learn of the tragic shooting incident that had just occurred -- a tragedy completely at odds with our enchanted desert sojourn.