They say that no visit to Phoenix is complete without driving the Apache Trail. Not quite willing to trust our budget car on the no doubt rocky terrain we took a jeep tour that started at Goldfield Ghost Town at the Apache Junction. The trail is fairly long and very scenic. You’ll definitely see a lot of cacti, especially the Saguaro, on your drive. I was very glad someone else was driving because I swear at one stage one of our tires was actually hanging out over the edge! The Saguaro is known as the Hotel of the Sonoran Desert and is the most amazing plant. However it is extremely slow growing, taking between 60 – 80 years just to develop an arm, and slow to propagate! I’m not sure if its true but our tour guide said that literally millions of seeds would probably produce just one Saguaro. This is probably why they are therefore protected so if one gets in the way of you building a house you have to apply for permission for it to be moved and then I think it has to be returned to the same spot.