Do not touch -- a cholla lesson

Although they are beautiful, you should not get too close to a cholla cactus. The cholla have a spine that is extremely sharp and will instantly penetrate skin, clothing or even heavy boots. Almost instantly, when the spine enters the skin, the end of spine curls into a fishhook making it virtually impossible to remove without a great deal of pain. Cholla reproduce, in part, from parts of the stems falling onto the ground. The fallen stems take root and form new cactus. For this reason, the plants grow in thick clumps. The flowers are relatively small but come in lovely colors from waxy yellow to maroon.

A Flaming Torch for Memorial Day

 We went out to take some pictures and found this gorgeous Flaming Torch cactus in full bloom. Apparently, there are several plants with the name "Flaming Torch" but I doubt that any of them deserve the name as much as this one.  I thought this plant should be the national Memorial Day cactus, since it blooms on Memorial Day and could be a symbol for all of the sacrifice of all of our Armed Forces over the years. 

Butterflies, Butterflies

You can guess the name of this butterfly, the Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius). It was declared the Florida State Butterfly in 1996. The butterfly ranges over parts of North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. In North America the butterfly is found in the southern parts of the United States including Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina. In South and Central America, it has been recorded in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. See Wikipedia.

A Butterfly a Day

Nature's flying gems, the butterfly above is a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) also known as the Green-clouded butterfly. It has two subspecies, Papilio troilus troilus and Papilio troilus ilioneus, found mainly in the Florida peninsula. The spicebush swallowtail derives its name from its most common host plant, the spicebush, members of the genus Lindera. Wikipedia. 

You can never see too many butterflies

Like all of my photos, you can click on the image and get an enlarged view. This is a Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia). The sole representative of its genus Dryas, it is native from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida, and in summer can sometimes be found as far north as eastern Nebraska. Over 15 subspecies have been described. There are 14 subspecies. See Wikipedia. Enjoy the butterflies from the Desert Botanical Gardens Exhibit the next few days.

The Battle Between the Light and the Dark

The classic battle between light and dark is played out on the vast battlefield of the Grand Canyon. Every day there is skirmish at sunrise and sunset. On those days when the battle is raging, the clouds form the lines of demarcation and separate the combatants by outlining the vast gulfs between the ridges of light and those of darkness.

Indian Gardens and the Bright Angel Trail

The distances in the Grand Canyon are so vast that you cannot appreciate how far you are seeing. Looking down on Indian Garden, it is approximately 4.6 to 4.9 miles by trail (depending on who you believe), although not that far in a straight line from the view point. Unfortunately, since I cannot fly, I must walk the trail. Historically, this was an Indian trail used by the Havasupais for access to Garden Creek, the small stream that runs through the Garden. Starting at the South Rim, Bright Angel is the most traveled trail in the Grand Canyon.

Death by falling

I you look carefully and enlarge the picture, you can see a trail out to one of the river overlooks. Usually, there is not any emphasis on the Canyon trails other than to hikers. But most of the canyon is accessible by some trail or another due to mining, hunting, tourists or prospectors. However, the Canyon defines the concept of remote. A recent news article points out the challenge:

The National Park Service has released the identity of a man who whose body was recovered earlier this month from below Grand Canyon's South Rim...
The body was discovered by a search team on April 25 in steep terrain about 700 feet below the rim. Crews eventually recovered the body May 6.
The Coconino County Medical Examiner ruled it a death by falling.

It took the Park Service from April 25 to May 5 to get down to the body. Think about it.

 By the way, I would like to get paid to figure out the death came from a fall.

Living with the light

I watch for the days when the light pulls me outside to see the sky and clouds. With the wind and rain, the day is complete.

The Shadow of the Bridge

It is hard to get a sense of scale from this photo until you realize that Hoover Dam is one of the largest structures in the world and the shadow is the bridge now built high above the dam across the Canyon. If you click on the picture and expand you screen you can just make out the cars on the left side of the dam, parked by the cliff going down to the Colorado River. The name of the bridge is the Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. It is 840 feet above the river, the second highest in the U.S. and has the longest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. I you keep up with bridges, dams and other such projects, you will know that the U.S. is not particularly known for extreme engineering in this category. It is nice to have something like this virtually in my "backyard." (I consider Arizona to be my backyard).

Off into the Clouds

If I were still paying for film, I would either have to quit taking pictures or work full time to support the film cost. The light changes so quickly at the Grand Canyon that you can take picture, after picture at the same spot and get a different perspective every time. Clouds make the difference. Can you possibly imagine all the pictures there are out there in the digital world of the Grand Canyon? Millions of visitors a year clicking away with their cameras. Why is that the case? It boils down to the fact that the Canyon is a singularly attractive photographic subject.

Storm off of the Grand Canyon Rim

I have mentioned before that the best time to see the Grand Canyon is when there is a storm. This shot is no exception. It is sometimes hard to remember that the South Rim of the Canyon lies at about 7000 feet or 2134 meters above sea level. That is higher than many mountains. The North Rim is even higher at over 8200 feet or about 2438 meters above sea level. It can be below freezing on the Rim, while at the same time the temperature at the bottom of the Canyon can be above 90 degrees F.

Taking pictures in extreme weather conditions is also a challenge. When the wind is blowing at above 30 mph, you don't want to get too close to the edge.

A Personal View of the Canyon

The Canyon is sometimes more personal than the grand vistas that have become iconic.  In a snow storm, the Canyon merges into cloud and the views tighten into brief glimpses of cliffs and snow and cloud combined. There is not perspective and the cliffs seem more manageable, although no more negotiable. There is really no better time to see the Canyon. Why go when the sun is shining and the Canyon looks like an Arizona Highway's Postcard?

The Level of the Lake

The inhabitants surrounding the Great Salt Lake alternate between hand-wringing that the lake will dry up and disappear and panic that they will all be flooded out from the water as it rises. The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of huge Lake Bonneville. In the Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley to the south, the shores of the this ancient lake are known as the benches and are popular places to build homes with a view.

End of Day Reverie

As night approaches the Canyon, the cliffs take on an abstract nearly flat appearance. The difference in the color of the walls changes with the distance from the viewer. Taking photos in this decreasing light is a special challenge. At this time, you begin to see exactly what colors are best reproduced digitally. In the film days, you could buy film that was more sensitive to blues or greens or reds or whatever color you were trying to capture. With today's digital cameras, you have far less predictability. How do you duplicate the light conditions on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to practice your skills. You may be able to look at a small rendition of your photograph on the back of the camera, but whether or not you were able to capture the subtle colors of the stone remain a mystery until you get back to your computer.

I suppose I could carry around a laptop, some photographers do, and check out the pictures, but by the time I did so, the light would have completely gone.

A False Perspective

The landscapes are so vast and the distances so great, that you get a false perspective. In the small picture, the lake looks like a cloud or a wall of mist. Even enlarged the photo gives you the impression that the lake is somehow floating in the air. The mountains in the background, with the snow, are the Wasatch Mountains around Salt Lake City, Utah. Visually, they are more than fifty miles away. They are almost seventy miles away by the nearest road. But time and distance mean absolutely nothing on the shores of the great inland sea.

Vanishing into the haze

There is a scene in Laurence of Arabia where a camel rider is approaching a well, you can hear him coming in the distance but the heat has so distorted the horizon that the rider is virtually invisible until he is nearly to the well. Standing on the beach of the Great Salt Lake with the haze on the horizon, gives you the impression that there is no end to the world. There is certainly no distinct demarcation between water and sky. The way the atmosphere changes is remarkable. Remember to click on the photos to see a larger view. 

The Mysterious Island

The salt concentration in the water varies from 5 to 27% depending on the lake level. The average salinity of the oceans is about 3.5%. The Dead Sea is about 33.7%. The water is uninhabitable except to brine shrimp, brine flies and several forms of algae. It is estimated that during certain seasons, there are 100 billion brine flies that provide food for thousands of migratory birds. The shores of the lake are covered in oolitic sand, which is composed of small rounded grains of sand covered in calcium carbonate.

The largest of the lake's islands, Antelope Island, is connected to the mainland by a highway causeway, so it is technically not an island at all. It is a strange and mysterious place, with unusual plants and animals. There is a substantial buffalo herd (American Bison) that roam freely around the island.

 

Sometimes, during a drought, the water levels drop to the point that the demise of the lake is predicted. Wetter years cause concern that the lake will flood valuable real estate. I figure it is sort of like the stock market, it goes up and down and both ways people are worried.

The Antelope Canyon Delemma - Beauty and Disaster

On Friday, July 30, 2010 the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office received a report that a 4½ foot wall of water had trapped 8 individuals on a ledge in the South End of Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona . It was also reported that a child had possibly been swept away in the flood waters. The child was located a short time later in good condition. NAZ Today, Northern Arizona's Live TV News.What is noteworthy about this incident, which never made it out of the local news, was that this was the same canyon complex where 11 people drowned in 1997. Although this report is from Upper Antelope Canyon and the 1997 incident occurred in Lower Antelope Canyon, they are in the same wash and only a few short miles apart.

At the time of the 1997 disaster, the regular tours were not running. Quoting from an article in the Lake Powell Chronicle of August 22, 2002, "Most of the French tourists in the canyon at the time belonged to a tour group with the outfitter Trek America, based in California. The group had already toured the canyon, but six wanted to go back and use up the rest of their film — they planned to hike to a hole in the rock known as "Eye of the Eagle" arch." From the same article, "At 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 12, 1997, officers with the Arizona of Public Safety responded to reports of a washout on Route 98 near the 306 mile marker. The water flowed for some time, and officers stood watch to make sure no one would attempt to cross it. Meanwhile, the storm responsible for dumping the rain moved to Le Chee Rock, about 15 miles away from the narrow Antelope slot canyons. It unleashed rain onto the slick rock below, and the water funneled into the wash that runs through Antelope Canyon."

The force of the water left only one survivor who was stripped of his clothes and temporarily blinded by the silt under his eyelids.

Since the 1997 disaster, a warning system has been put in place. But Antelope Canyon is not a public park. It is a private concession on the Navajo Nation Reservation and entry into the Canyon is restricted to guided tours led by authorized guides.

Pictures of Antelope Canyon have become iconic. You cannot walk through an airport or tourist area in Arizona or Utah without seeing pictures of one or the other of the two canyons.  The picture above was taken on a sunny day in Lower Antelope Canyon. It is almost like hiking in a cave.

A Prickly Pair

Prickly Pear (Opuntia) flowers have an amazing variety of colors, sometimes on the same plant. Often the colors of the flower will change from day to day and even from one time of the day to later in the same day. Like all cactus flowers, the blooms only last a day or at most two or three before closing. Once the flower in pollinated, the plant will produce a "fruit" containing hundreds of seeds.

Flaming Torch Cactus

I thought you might like to know why this cactus is called the Flaming Torch, so I posted another picture of the cactus. These flowers only last a day or two and they are gone. You have to find them on the exact day they are most in bloom. Unfortunately, the photos do not do justice to the color in real life.

Spring Flowers in the Desert

One of the supreme ironies of the plant world is that those plants with the most developed defense mechanisms seem to have to most beautiful flowers. We love to see the flowers in April/May/June and wonder at the amazing colors. This is a Flaming Torch Cactus.