First encounter

Aidan gets his first close look at a cactus in the wild during our cross-country drive in summer 2002. He was disappointed that this specimen was so different than the iconic Saguaro. We didn't visit the region where Saguaro grow on that trip.

I appreciated Aidan's reaction, having been disappointed with my first glimpse of cacti out west years before. I had seen this same medium-sized, branched cactus along the highway and pulled over to see if it was, in fact, a cactus. It was many years later that I saw my first Saguaro, and obviously, I'm hooked on these characters. However, I also appreciate the great variety of other cacti out there. I'll try to dig up and scan a shot from that earlier trip.