I was so looking forward to visiting Saguaro National Park, seeing all of these towering Cacti was amazing.

We loved learning about the environment and the kids participated in the jr ranger program.

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We did a short hike around the visitors center before getting back in our car and driving out into the park.

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Our first stop was to hike up to an overlook to see some petroglyphs.

Our next stop was for lunch.

They had very nice tables to eat at with an overlook. We had packed a picnic in the morning, our little lunch boxes were well used again on this trip.

We then drove around the rest of the scenic loop. We decided that we wanted one last hike as a storm was rolling in.

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This was when messages started rolling in from friends and family. Our neighborhood and my parents’ was in a pre evacuation zone because of a fire in our area. This was the start of the Marshall Fire that devastated neighborhoods near us.

We really wanted to leave and drive home immediately to be there to help friends that were evacuated from their homes and to grab important things from our home. We did feel comfort that we were dafe and everything important was with us (each other). Our dog Humphry was safe at my brothers home far from the fire.

Friends and family were sending us pictures of what they could see from their homes. We really wanted to pack up and head home as that is where our hearts were but (luckily) a snow storm was coming in that night and we didn’t want to pull our trailer into a storm. The snow was good as it put out the fire.

The views were scary but we were lucky and our neighbors didn’t have to evacuate.

We were very worried for our friends that were evacuated and for Cory’s office that was also in an evacuation zone.