Binder Weed

I actually love Morning Glory, commonly called Binder Weed or Bindweeds and very bad noxious plant. I can remember it from when I was very young and I have always loved the flowers, but I guess I never had to try to get rid of it from a garden. It doesn't grow in the low desert.

Ride to Eternity

This is called the Alpine Coaster at the Park City Mountain Resort. It was more interesting visually than it was as a ride, although it was better than the Alpine Slide and not as fast as the Zip Line. I like the perspective.

Summer Ski Runs

How you look at this hillside depends on whether or not you are a snow skier. I you like skiing, this is almost perfect. If you like forests and don't care for "recreation" then you might get upset at the trees being cut down. Well, you can't please them all.

Splashing Color

Columbine come in a variety of colors, but retain the same basic shape. They are all beautiful in their own way. Perhaps we need to look more at the basic shape than the color in making distinctions between individual flowers and individual people.

A Single Flower

When you look at things in general, such as a crowd of people, you can make different judgments about the individuals than when you look at them as individuals. Each of these flowers is unique and special, but we often view them in clusters and bunches and may not take time to look at the beauty of the individual.

A Dance of Columbine

We get Spring wildflowers in Arizona, but they are long gone by the time June rolls around except in the high mountains. I had to travel to Utah to find these lovely yellow Columbine flowers. It was a windy day and I didn't know if the flowers would be in focus. Fortunately they were.

The Heart of Timpanogos

This stalactite formation is called the "Heart of Timpanogos" and with good reason. It is very interesting formation and one of the thousands in the cave.

A Typical Warning

Yes, I do see rattlesnakes from time to time. Over the years, I have seen hundreds of them. But this sign was not so much meant to warn of the danger of rattlesnakes, but to keep people on the paved trail. I think the drop-offs of the trail were much more of a hazard than the possible rattlesnake. This sign was on the Timpanogos Cave trail in the National Monument. I am happy that my government is concerned about my safety and welfare enough to post signs warning me about rattlesnakes.

A Desert Sentinel

This sandstone sentinel almost fades into the backdrop of the huge Vermillion Cliffs. You can get some idea of the size, if you look carefully, from the telephone poles in the image. You can only begin to imagine the size of the huge cliff behind the butte.

Vermillion Cliffs

One of the most dramatic and colorful cliffs in the world, the Vermillion Cliffs stretch for miles along the eastern end of the Grand Canyon. They are the second step in the five-step Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau.

El Condor Pasa

California condors are the king of the skies. This is L2, a two year old female condor, released in 2012. They are the largest North American land bird. These birds have a wingspan of nearly 10 feet and weigh up to 26 pounds. They are also one of the world's rarest bird species.

Condor L2

A condor population has been re-established in the area of the Vermillion Cliffs in Northern Arizona. The birds are numbered so that they can be constantly monitored. L2 is one of approximately 75 condors that reside in the Vermillion Cliffs area. They are frequently seen in the vicinity of Navajo Bridge. California condors were placed on the federal Endangered Species list in 1967. Only 22 condors were known to remain in 1982, while today the world population exceeds 400, with over 225 condors living in the wild. See Condor Viewing in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.

Green Fruit

You can see two stages of this saguaro's fruit; the flower and the ripening fruit with the withered flowers still attached. If a few weeks, this fruit will ripen and split open. Bats, birds and other animals will help spread the thousands of seeds with the hope that a few will produce new saguaro plants.

Log Jam

Sometimes the pattern of rather ordinary objects catches my eye. I like the weathered quality and form of these sticks. They look like they might have been piled here on purpose but nature has a way of arranging things in the most efficient way.

Jeddito Black-on-yellow

 Ancient pottery is classified by the style and date of manufacture. This style of pottery was made as early as 1325 A.D. The name "Jeddito" comes from the area where the pottery is thought to have originated in modern-day Navajo County, Arizona. The pottery was produced in the Hopi villages, primarily on Antelope and Third Mesas and the pottery was traded extensively across the Southwest, though primarily in, what is now, northern, central, and east-central Arizona.

Old Wheelbarrow

One of the halmarks of the desert is that old machinery and equipment is preserved by the dry climate. so we have a lot of old farm and mining machinery scattered here and there. I am always tempted to take photos of the equipment, just in case I never get back to the same location again and in the event it get lost or moved.

Flamingos

How could you pass up this shot? Arizona is no different than the rest of the country in some ways. But where else can you get a view of half of the state with flamingos in the foreground?

Graffiti

If graffiti is old enough, it gains historic value and gets preserved as an artifact. That tells me something about the way the world works in general. 

Classic Desert

This photo captures the classic Arizona-Sonora Desert view. The abundance of saguaro cactus is not rare, but the grouping is unusual. Yes, they just grow that way naturally. This is a natural composition, not a planted garden. Anyway, it would take a hundred years or more for the saguaros to grow to this size.

Cholla Bloom

The cholla is the most fiercely protected cactus and apparently puts so much energy into spines that it has little left over for flowers. Cholla flowers are small and sometimes overlooked because the rest of the plant is so formidable.

A Desert Giant

This huge saguaro is not nearly the largest one in Arizona, but it is a really good example of how big and high these marvelous desert plants can grow. If you look closely, you will also see some ocotillo blooming and the last blooms of the brittle bush.

Shadows on the Horned Toad

We always called these small lizards, horny toads, but scientists and others don't listen much to children. I liked this stone bench shaped like the friendly little horny toads. I also liked the way the shadows from the ramada added stripes to the bench.

The Old Truck

I grew up riding in trucks just like this one. In my memory they were just about in the same condition when I was young as they are, abandoned, in fields and lots around the Southwest. Because of the dry climate, old vehicles persist long past the time they would have disappeared in other parts of the country.

A Hollow Branch

When a branch on a tree dies, there is usually a reason. Sometimes that reason is not evident until the branch is cut. Here, the inside of the branch had rotted away and to preserve the tree from a catastrophic injury, the branch is usually cut. In this case, the cut is spectacular.

Late Afternoon Meal

Taking advantage of the last rays of the afternoon sun, this lovely wading shore bird is intent on finding the small animals it dines on. This is an American Avocet, one of the most elegant of the smaller shore birds on Arizona's lakes and marshes.

Northern Cousin

This cholla cactus was doing well growing in the much colder climate of Zion Canyon in Southern Utah rather than the dry lower deserts of Arizona. I think it says a lot about variety and adaptability. You may not like your surroundings but you may still be adapted to them.

Crowded Flowers

Most cactus flowers are prominently displayed by the plant, but barrel cactus (also called fishhook cactus) are an exception. Their flowers barely have room to bloom among the spines of the cactus. Not very good planning, I guess.

Snowstorm in Zion

Since it is getting into the hot part of the summer in the Desert, it is nice to think about times when it was actually cold outside. Standing in a snowstorm in Zion National Park is a nice place to think about when the temperature goes over 110 degrees.

The Window and the Chair

This window was interesting because you couldn't see anything outside because of the fog. So the main interest was the interior of the room and the light from the window shining on an old handcrafted chair.

Naturally Ornamented

This is one of those photos that cannot be seen well in the thumbnail view. You will have to click on the photo to see the detail. What can I say about this lovely tree more than the photo itself expresses?

A Line of Geodes

Geodes are pockets of crystals in rocks. Sometimes, you can find them lying on the ground, weathered out of the rocks, but usually we have to dig them out of the ground or cut them out of the rocks. Sometimes, like this rock, they are weathered out into a chain of crystal spaces.

Queen Creek

There is a town named Queen Creek in the very far eastern part of the Salt River Valley. But there is actually a Queen Creek also. Typical of most creeks, streams and rivers in Arizona it is dry most of the year, but there can be some impressive floods that come down this canyon when it does rain.

Mudhead

The Koyemsi, or Mudhead Kachina, is a clown who may be seen in most Hopi ceremonies. This is an early depiction of one painted on the wall of the Desert View Watchtower in the Grand Canyon National Park.

Turkey Vulture

This turkey vulture seems to be waiting for breakfast. We wondered if we sat very still, if this vulture would come to investigate us looking for food. But it was too hot and getting hotter and we decided that the experiment would have to wait for another day.

How Does It Happen?

It is interesting to speculate how these two rock formations could have evolved. It is clear that the lighter colored rock under the balanced one eroded fasted than the balanced rock itself, but right next to it is a small needle that did not form a balanced rock. Strange.

Tattered Houses

These spider webs are a bit untidy. They need some serious house cleaning activity. We would have offered to help, but then the spiders would just have to build them all over again.

Trail Step

The people who make trails put these beams to block water from running down the trail and eroding it away. Depending on how tired you are, on the use and how much of the bottom dirt has been worn away, they can be a formidable obstacle. There are hundreds of these on the Grand Canyon trails and when you are climbing out of the Canyon, you have a tendency to dislike them intensely.

Ant Lion Holes

All these little holes are made by ant lions, lying in wait for some ant to slide down into the hole and get eaten up by the bug at the bottom. We used to dig up the holes with a scoop of our hand and look at the tiny ant lions scurry around. If they were large, they would be scary.

The Perfect Anthill

This is one of the most perfectly made anthills I have ever seen. It looks like the particles of dirt were especially chosen to make the most accurate slope possible. Funny, this hill was right in the middle of a high foot traffic area so these particular ants probably had to rebuild this anthill frequently.

Water in the Desert

This is an obvious man-made oasis. This small pond is located in the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, just south of Superior, Arizona on U.S. 60. Absent constant additions of water, this pond would disappear in a very short time.

Facing the Sun

Almost all cactus plants orient themselves to the sun in some way. I have seen few such dramatic examples as these golden barrels all pointing in the same direction.

Boojum Trunk

 It is hard to decide whether this is really a tree or just a very large unusual plant. Its scientific name is fouquieria columnaris and the the only related plants are the ocotillos. The name came from Lewis Carroll's poem, "The Hunting of the Snark." They seem to be only trees in the general sense that upright plants with limbs are trees.

Highlights

It is amazing to me how the light can capture the detail of some parts of a scene and leave the rest in shadow and darkness. The contrast is sometimes dramatic, as it is here. To make this type of photo, you need to have strong sunlight in the early morning or late afternoon. You can tell by the colors here that this is a morning shot.

Sotol

Most of the detail of the photos is lost in the thumbnail copies that appear online. If you haven't clicked on the images you haven't seem them. This is a sotol. It is not a cactus but falls into the greater category of succulent. It is also not an agave.

Waiting for the Thermals

The local buzzard population sits on the side of a south-facing hill waiting for the summer sun to rise high enough to form thermal currents that are the buzzard's ride to work. The birds all watch for the signs that one of their number has found a thermal and then then will all join in circling in the air.

Agave Bloom Upclose

The agave plant grows for years and then sends up one huge shoot that blossoms into several large yellow blooms. Most of the time, these blossoms are inaccessible because they are ten or more feet up in the air. I just happened to get at an angle where I could get close to one with a telephoto lens.

Reflections

The combination of desert and water is irresistible. We used to go boating all the time in my teenage years by driving to the very accessible reservoirs near the Salt River Valley. But it is only as I have grown older that I appreciated the beauty of the water and the rocks for their own sake and not a part of a water skiing activity.

Yellow Fruit

Most cactus fruit is edible, but only a very few species are common enough and have enough fruit to make an impact on the food supply of the original desert dwellers. Fishhook barrel cactus are not too common and have relatively little fruit on each plant. This particular one is an exception.

Cactus Pink

 Pink is an unusual color for cactus flowers. I guess you would have to look at a lot of different flowers to know this. I am not aware that anyone is hybridizing prickly pear cactus for flowers. Although there are some of the smaller cactus species that are collected and hybridized just for their flowers.

Oasis

You might get the idea that all of Arizona is barren wasteland. Well, did it ever occur to you that some of the state is a wonderland of greenery and wetlands? Oh, I would guess those aren't the parts they show in all the movies and travel brochures.