chewed at the bottom

I guess because the chewed part at the bottom of the cactus gets so woody, it has the strength to hold the heavy part up. They don't have a deep root system.

In the distance you can see a bit of the head and hump of Camelback Mountain. I went to a totally different hiking area today and I took so many bad photos it was astonishing! Camelback is close to where I normally hike. My knees don't allow me to do Camelback anymore, parts of it are quite steep :-D