Gila Monster

This is a child's slide in a playground. Pleasant enough to give the little dears nightmares for a week. I haven't ever seen a Gila monster outside of a zoo or botanical garden, they are relatively rare and very shy. They are poisonous but they have to bite and chew for a while before the poison works its way out of the glands in their mouths. They aren't really monsters, just fat old lizards. They are really the product of bad packaging, bad name branding and terrible public relations.

Saguaro and Ironwood

I couldn't resist another shot of the Ironwood trees in bloom. This time with saguaros also in bloom. The colors in the desert are subtle astonishingly beautiful. There isn't anyplace else that has the blue of the sky set off by the deep greens and grays of the cactus and the lavender of the ironwood. I'm torn between the spectacle of the mountains and the subtlety of the desert. Both have their attractions.

Smoke Trees

One of the most beautiful sights in the desert is the ironwood or smoke tree. Their delicate purple blooms are absolutely stunning. They are called smoke trees because when they are in bloom they look like wisps of smoke on the hillside. The wood is so dense that it resists cutting by anything except the sharpest and most durable materials. Its hard wood has become the tree's worst enemy. It has been relentless cut down for its small amount of wood. The wood is so dense, I have been told it will not float. We had to drive around for quite a while to find some trees to photograph. Click on the image to get the full effect.

Troubled Times

Even in troubled times, Liberty shines like a beacon in the darkness. Lifting her torch so that we can all see the blessings of living in the home of the brave and land of the free. Reminding us, as Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Here is another quote from Thomas Jefferson worth remembering on the Memorial Day: 

The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the principal studies and endeavours of our lives. The only method of doing this is to assume a perfect resignation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever does happen, must happen; and that by our uneasiness, we cannot prevent the blow before it does fall, but we may add to its force after it has fallen. These considerations, and others such as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties thrown in our way; to bear up with a tolerable degree of patience under this burthen of life; and to proceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive at our journey’s end, when we may deliver up our trust into the hands of him who gave it, and receive such reward as to him shall seem proportioned to our merit. Such, dear Page, will be the language of the man who considers his situation in this life, and such should be the language of every man who would wish to render that situation as easy as the nature of it will admit. Few things will disturb him at all: nothing will disturb him much. Letter to John Page (15 July 1763); published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson (1905).

African Tulip Tree

These brightly colored flowers are on a large tree growing right downtown in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are called African Tulip Trees or Spathodea and are native to dry regions of Africa. This occurrence is added to that list of very surprising things you can find in Arizona and particularly, the Salt River Valley. I really like this particular color for flowers, but I don't think it would go over as a color for painting a room.

5th Avenue and Scottsdale Road

Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona USA in Arizona

Fifth Avenue in Scottsdale, Arizona has been a mecca for winter visitors and shoppers from all over the world. Scottsdale is located to the immediate north and east of Phoenix, the state’s largest city, its capital and the sixth largest city in the United States. Scottsdale has a population of just over 200,000 people. The settlement of the area known as Scottsdale by Europeans, began in 1868 with the establishment of irrigation projects in the Salt River Valley. The town takes its name from one of the original owners of the property, a retired Army officer named Winfield Scott. He and his brother George Scott first farmed the area. It is largely a suburban community with both low cost and very expensive homes. The community is the home to a number of large hotel resorts. This panorama is taken in the Old Town section of Scottsdale at the corner of 5th Avenue and Scottsdale Road.

Not the Vermillion Cliffs

You might confuse this photo with one I did of the Vermillion Cliffs, and then again, you might not. This is a different kind of cliff and has different kinds of canyons. Although New York is interesting, I much prefer my own cliffs and canyons, Thank You.

Vermillion Cliffs

The Vermillion Cliffs are a prominent feature of Northern Arizona. Their 3000 foot escarpment encloses the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. I have driven passed these cliffs hundreds of times and hiked and camped around them many times, they are a significant part of my Arizona experience.

Marble Canyon Overlook

Marble Canyon starts just below Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River. This was very close to being one of my "face" pictures, but I like the abstract nature of the cliff and small sand bar. You can also see the effect of the side canyon on the river. The shaft of sunlight was a bonus. This is one of those photos that you need to click on to view much larger. The photo was taken from the old Navajo Bridge that has been turned into a pedestrian bridge and is a wonderful place to look down on the river.

A Grand Canyon

There is probably no other state in the U.S. that has such a major scenic attraction that is so closely identified with the state. You might say the same about Delicate Arch and Utah but Delicate Arch does not take up a large portion of the northern part of the state as does the Canyon. I come back to the Canyon because as George Mallory said, "Because its there."

Too thin to plow, too thick to drink

Every few years, the Little Colorado River floods. When it does, the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River become a spectacular sight. There are, of course, problems taking pictures. The main one is that the water really is so muddy that it has the reddish brown color and when it billows into a spray, the spray is really airborne liquid mud and it coats everything, including your camera. It is hard to get a grasp of the scale of this waterfall. It is actually almost 200 feet high, higher than the famous Niagara Falls in New York.

Solar Eclipse

Taken through a dark special filter. Mesa is too far south to see a complete annular eclipse but here are some shots when it was as full as it got. The bottom picture is of the weird shadows caused by the eclipse. The rest of the pictures are so dark because of the filter. These were taken from our front yard or across the street.

Typical Mesa Couple

 I captured this typical Mesa couple just as they were crossing the street at McDonald and Main.

A Lovely Green Waterfall

When you live in the desert, anything green looks wonderful. I was particularly enchanted with this waterfall of green ferns. This tropical wonderland is a polar opposite of the currently very dry Arizona desert. Each has its own attractions, but in this case green wins.

Figures and Faces

What I see in nature is always transformed in my mind to figures and faces. Any pattern I see, becomes a person or animal and often with faces. This actually has a name, it is called pareidolia. It is the reason we see things like the Man in the Moon and shapes in clouds. Pareidolia is part of a more general experience called apophenia, the human tendency to see patterns in random nature. But if you look at the above picture, tell me you don't see the figure with its head next to the window in the rock?

On the edge

This old pine knows what it is to live on the edge. Surprisingly, the Grand Canyon is not known for violent weather, but it does get very cold, very hot, and there are winds most of the year. When the storms do come, they sweep through before moving on the do damage in the Midwest. Compared to other parts of the state, the Canyon is not particularly windy with an average annual wind speed of about 6.4 mph. Of all the weather conditions, the heat is the worst. At the bottom of the Canyon in the Summer, daytime temperatures are often over 100 degrees F. (38 degrees C.). It is important to remember that the Canyon is in the middle of a vast desert, but the high plateau on the north and south of the Canyon get more rainfall than the surrounding areas. The average rain fall on the Rims of the Canyon is about 16.5 inches a year.

Canyon in the Mist

One the challenges of taking photos in Arizona is that most of the days are sunny with an intense blue sky. Lovely for a lot of activities, but it makes for pretty dull photos, especially of the Grand Canyon. The opposite challenge is that the wind is blowing, it is snowing and the lens on the camera keeps getting wet. There are always trade-offs. All in all, I would rather be at the Grand Canyon during weather rather than on a hot, sunny day in the middle of the summer.

Hoover Dam, Arizona - Nevada Border, USA in Nevada

Hoover Dam on the Colorado River forms the largest reservoir in United States in maximum water capacity, Lake Mead. Previously much of the traffic from Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada crossed the river on the road across the dam. But since the construction of the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (Colorado River Bridge), traffic over the dam has been limited. The bridge is 900 feet over the river. In this panorama you can see the Bridge, the top of the Dam and down into the Black Canyon to the River below the Dam. The Dam is 726.4 feet from the rock foundation to the roadway. The towers over the dam rise another 40 feet. The Dam is 1,244 feet across the top and 660 feet thick at the base. The Dam featured prominently in the 2007 Transformers movie called simply “Transformers.” The Dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936.

Joshua Tree

This is one of the strangest names for a plant I am aware of. I cannot fathom how the name Joshua Tree was applied to this variety of monocotyledonous Yucca cactus. They say the early settlers named the plant after the Biblical Prophet because it reminded them of a prophet with his hands in the air. I don't get that at all. These strange plants grow in a very narrow band because they are extremely sensitive to changes in altitude. As you drive across northwestern Arizona, they appear and disappear based entirely on how high up into the mountains the road travels. I have seen huge forests of these yuccas just across the border in Utah near the Virgin River Gorge on the highway between St. George and Las Vegas.

Seeing beauty

One thing about the desert is that it is dry. Dry means that metal and other objects are essentially eternal. Who knows how long this particular can has lain here out on the desert pavement? Sometimes if we are not careful, we will ignore the beauty around us and focus on what we consider to be trash. Maybe sometimes we should realize that even man-made trash can become beautiful over time. If this can were a few years older and made of clay, it would be protected by strict national laws about artifacts.

Sego Lily

This small, but beautiful, flower had a great impact on the settlement of the Southwest. It is a Sego Lily and the bulb is edible. Because of the edible bulb, early pioneers to the West survived famine by eating the bulbs from these plants. It would take a lot of bulbs to support the pioneers, but even though the plants are not that common, they were a valuable source of food. The Sego Lily is the State Flower of Utah.

Beauty is not skin deep

All you have to do is look around you almost anywhere and you will see insanely beautiful people depicted on TV, in magazines, on billboards, and all sorts of display advertising. Their skin is flawless and they always look like they just walked out of the hair stylists. Nothing in nature is that perfect. No one really goes into ecstasy over a hamburger. The people who drive cheap cars, do not wear clothes that look more expensive than the cars. Here is reality. This flower is so beautiful it could have been someone's design. But look carefully. It is real and the cactus that it comes from are really prickly cactus and are not nearly as perfect as the fake advertising creations of the day. Real beauty obviously comes from something other than an airbrush or a run through Photoshop.

Why isn't this on the map?

If this Canyon were anywhere else, it would be a major tourist attraction. As it is, it is almost impossible to find, is not visible from any highway and there are no signs marking its location. This brings up a really interesting (to me) issue about designating parks and wilderness areas. Does every colored rock in North America belong in a National Monument or National Park? What would happen if this place were so designated? Wouldn't there be a visitor's center and interpretive trails? How about railings to keep people from falling in? I think it is better off being obscure.

Very Yellow

Nearly all the cactus flowers are gone by the first of June. But if you want to prolong the season some what, you can drive up into the Arizona high country. As you drive up towards the mountains the altitude increases from around 1200 feet above sea level in Mesa, Arizona to around 7,000 feet at the top of the Mogollon Rim just about 100 miles north. As you drive up the road, you can see the seasons change. Just a few miles north and the cactus are still blooming. Finally, you end up in the Ponderosa pine forest and it is still early Spring. But with a nice photo, we can celebrate the blooming cactus anytime we like.

Very Sharp Indeed!

This could be a crowd of shoppers at Walmart on Black Friday, but it is really a few of my close friends getting together for a chat. Can you think of any reason why these plants exist? That is really their fascination. They are so well adapted to their habitat, but so out of place everywhere else. Maybe you can see why I relate so well to them.

A Fairy Duster

Not all desert plants look like cactus and threaten the world with spines and thorns. The fairy duster is a innocuous bush most of the year until it blooms with delicate red to pink exploding flowers. It is a favorite landscape plant and is only seen in wild occasionally. The flowers remind me of Fourth-of-July fireworks. It is amazing how even the most inconspicuous bush in the desert can have such beautiful flowers.

A decorated house with a view

Many people think that having a decorated house with a view is the epitome of success. In that case, this mourning dove has it made. Her ultra modern home comes with all of the amenities she needs, especially the high tech security system. You may have to click on the image to appreciate her lovely decor, but few people have such a lovely color scheme and food storage is also not a problem.

Washington County Historical Society, Washington, Utah USA in Utah
The Washington County Historical Society s a non-profit organization incorporated on April 25, 1982. It was formed to promote and perpetuate the history of Washington County, Utah. The building is located in Washington, Utah, just north of St. George, Utah. St. George, Utah is the county seat of Washington County and a major transportation and commercial hub for the Southern Utah area. This city has a sizeable winter visitor population but has an official population of just under 73,000 people. The city is located in a small valley along the Virgin River. Because of its low altitude compared to the rest of the state of Utah, the weather is mild in the Winter and the area has earned the name of Utah’s Dixie. The city is the center of some of the most spectacular scenery in the continental United States and is also near several National Parks and Monuments, such as Zion National Park and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. This panorama shows the compact size of the main part of the community but does no show the outlying subdivisions where a sizable portion of the population resides.

How doth the busy little bee

How doth the little busy Bee
     Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
     From every opening Flower!

Cactus flowers are pollinated in a variety of ways. For example, the saguaro is pollinated by the Mexican Long Nosed Bat in addition to birds and insects. Since the flowers are only open for a day or so at the most, pollination must take place quickly. Once pollinated, the flowers close, dry up and fall off, leaving the seed pod or fruit. If you are used to flowers that last for days or weeks, you may entirely miss seeing the cactus flowers. 

Quail

One of the most distinctive things about living in the desert is waking up in the morning to the sound of mourning doves and quail. It takes a while to figure out which type of bird is making what sound, but once you do, you realize that both mourning doves and quail are everywhere. We love to see them when they run on their little short legs across the road as we ride bikes around the neighborhoods. They are especially precious when they are followed by a line of tiny babies all in row, running behind them. They will fly only when they absolutely have to do so. They are the cute entirely inoffensive little friend of the desert.

Hummingbirds

When I was young, I don't remember seeing many hummingbirds. I think they are something you have to learn to look for. A little ball of fluff will go unnoticed unless your eyes are trained to see them sitting on a limb or darting through the air. I always thought they were a very rare sight. Now that I am much, much older, I have learned to see them. Guess what? They are everywhere. On a walk along the canal, I can see dozens in one day. They are very difficult to photograph. They don't like to hold still. I love the way they dart and zoom.

Brilliance

We admire brilliance whether it is in a person or a flower. The difference is that brilliant people are rarely found, but brilliant flowers are everywhere present. Maybe that is true about people also, but we don't realize their brilliance. Every flower lifts and comforts the soul. I love cactus flowers because no one would ever give someone a cactus flower. It is not a good idea to try to pick them and so they have to be enjoyed exactly where they grow. Maybe that is another lesson for recognizing brilliance in people, enjoying them exactly where and how they grow.

Progression

Here you can see almost the whole spectrum of the development of the luscious prickly pear fruit. The base of the flower buds grows as the flower matures. Once the flower has bloomed, the base continues to grow. It is really a seed pod full of black hard seeds. However, the pod itself ripens into a bright crimson, sweet and tart tasting fruit. Around Labor Day every year, the fruit are ripe for picking. Of course, you have to be extremely careful in picking them because the fruits are covered with extremely small and sharp spines called glochids. These spines are almost like fur but can enter the skin instantly and feel like tiny sharp needles. We used to use an open flame to burn off the glochids, but now we extract the juice with a steam juicer and strain the juice through cloth to prevent the spines from getting into the juice. The prickly pear juice can be used to make syrup or jelly. There is nothing as good as well made prickly pear jelly! 

Composition

Saguaros usually grow under a nursery tree or bush until they get much older. A saguaro this size is likely more than a hundred years old. By the time the saguaro is mature, the tree or bush has usually died after providing shade for the young saguaro plant. If I had worked at creating this planting of cactus and trees I could not have achieved a better composition. Please click on the image to see the detail.

Tranquility

Sometimes it is just important to enjoy the tranquility of the moment. They do not last for long before the moment is swept up in the flurry of the day's activities. But when you see the durability of the rock, contrasted with the fragile and short-lived beauty of the flowers, it can remind you of the need to capture those moments of tranquility and let them live in your memory, to be brought back on stage when life seems too busy to endure.