Here are some more pictures from our recent Arizona vacation.
I believe this was a cholla cactus–the flowers not quite open yet.
This opuntia pad and fruits looks suspiciously like a foot with six toes.
Large opuntia with the foot-pad above to the left.
This saguaro had been damaged/broken and you can see the skeleton inside. It was still growing and appeared well despite the huge loss of its entire top.
Open cholla flowers
Delicate petals and deadly spines
Not a plant you want to stumble upon in flip-flops!
More cactus flowers
And more…
And one more…
These are called fish hook barrel cactus–for obvious reason. Beautiful plants, but somewhat unsociable.
Another view. Spectacular plants!
The distant hills on one of my walks. You can see the limestone cliffs at the tops, eroded by rain and wind into beautiful shapes.
Another spectacular cactus flower.
Amazing cactus plant with delicate blooms amid the deadly thorns.
We hear how Saguaros are endangered and getting rare. And maybe all the Saguaro-like cactus we saw were not Saguaros at all. But if they were, there were thousands and thousands of them. Hard to imagine them endangered!
This poppy proved a bright spot in the desert. This wasn’t a California poppy–possibly a Mexican poppy.
The rocks/stones/boulders are very impressive in the desert.
More impressive stones.
And more–the colors are amazing.
A typical view on a walk in the desert.
Amazing that plants, including cactus and Palos Verdes trees, find a way to grow in these extreme conditions.
I was pretty excited to find tamarisk along the roadside. Later, I read that in Arizona, this is called “Salt Cedar” and it is extremely invasive.
A close up of the flowers. This plant would be fine to grow in Seattle, likely, with no worries about it spreading.
Not sure exactly what the name of this daisy is, but it looked a bit like a tansy. I only saw it in one place.
It can get tiresome to see all the dry, dry, dry and dusty. So, I walked to the river and the views were fresher!
Near the river, these brave guys were heading straight up one of the steep hills.
Arliss took us to Quartzite to see the sights. This was one of the better/worse ones.
Someone had been using this plastic squirrel for target practice. It was a strange thing to come upon in the desert.
Spectacular views on a walk near Arliss and Mike’s.
Another great view. I was actually following the power lines so I wouldn’t get lost.
These hills were full of quartzite.
You can see the sparkling quartzite that the earth is spewing up here.
Another view.
And again…
My shadow against the parched earth.
Another fantastic vision.
A dwarf oenothera in the desert.
Close up of the flowers.
Not sure of these flowers, but they reminded me of layias, only one color.
Fantastic cloud formation.
