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Found this on our way to the China Dam, North of Pleasant.



(I would post the pic, but it is taller then 700 pixels..)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hp ... 6382_n.jpg

Yep definitely a crested

woohoo!

Bucket list item scratched off.

I have friends in Tucson who have recorded over 1,000 crested (crestate/cristate) saguaros. Here are some very amazing photos of a few of them. http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/2007_m ... eting.html

azbackpackr wrote:I have friends in Tucson who have recorded over 1,000 crested (crestate/cristate) saguaros. Here are some very amazing photos of a few of them. http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/2007_m ... eting.html

Stunning! I've never seen anything like the first one.

did your friends reach their goal of 1,000?

everyone is welcome to upload photos(no limit on size) and label them to http://hikearizona.com/dexcoder.php?PID=1595

joe bartels wrote:did your friends reach their goal of 1,000?

everyone is welcome to upload photos(no limit on size) and label them to http://hikearizona.com/dexcoder.php?PID=1595

Yes, they did reach it several years ago, and got a few more than 1,000. I have been out of touch with them for a year or so. I notice that a website they maintained with hundreds of photos is no longer operative, unfortunately. So, I just attached that website I did find of the lecture they gave to the cactus and succulent society. I sent them an email to see if they are still hunting for cristate saguaros. Last I heard they had not even gotten out to W. Arizona yet to look for them, but were planning on it.

I saw one not far off the new route of the AZT Passage 14 in the Black Hills. It's at about 32.761303, 110.770477. "About" is the operative word here, so don't key that into the GPS and run out there and expect to walk under it. That location is on a road, the crested cactus is visible from the road, to the south, near that location.