More Spring Scenes

Near Twentynine Palms early this week, there were large fields of desert dandelions. It's a little late for these to bloom in such profusion at 2000 feet...there must have been some good rain within the past few weeks.

I pass through Joshua Tree NP at least once a year on my way to and from Arizona, but I never spend more than a few hours there. This is a bad travel oversight! One of these times I'll spend a day or two just roaming around the park. The rocks are endlessly cool. The whole place is a photographers paradise!

Here the teddy bear chollas are accompanied by blooming desert senna.

This abstract looking scene is actually a blooming creosote bush...blow the pic up for more detail.

At home, Garland Park is in full bloom. This is a blue eyed grass, a common flower in the park.

A Leisurely Trip Home

I ambled home from Arizona over three days. One of the big advantages of being retired is that you can do stuff like that...you're hardly ever in a hurry. And at this time of year it's good not to be in a rush...the weather's mild, and there's beauty everywhere. Here the lizards are enjoying some desert dandelions. At low elevations the wildflowers are pretty much done in the desert, but above 2000 feet in Joshua Tree NP they're still thriving.

A fine patch of globemallow in Joshua Tree NP.

This was a particularly fine ocotillo flower in full spring bloom.

JTNP is a surreal spot due to the vegetation and the rock formations. Sculpted by millennia of freezing and thawing, this park has some of the coolest rocks anywhere, seemingly piled up at random.

The area around Point Piedras Blancas is better known for its large colony of elephant sloats, but after a decent rain year the countryside is covered with lupines.

Cactus in Bloom

After a week of April, the wildflowers are mostly gone in the Arizona desert. However, the cactus are just coming into bloom. This prickly pear was especially gaudy. I must confess to cheating a bit with this picture; it was actually taken next to a street in Sun City West, rather than in the desert itself.








Now this is a natural prickly pear, growing wild in White Tank Mountain Regional Park west of Phoenix. As of April 9, the pricklys were just beginning to bloom; buckhorn cholla were at their peak; and hedgehog cacti were a bit past their prime, though some late bloomers still sported some really nice flowers.






The lizards hung out with me in the desert a couple days ago, and proved their resilience by lounging in the spines of a barrel cactus. They love the desert above all other environments.










The saguaros are beginning to bud...this has just happened in the past week. In a couple weeks the first flowers will appear, and continue to bloom one after the other well into June. The saguaro bloom is the state flower of Arizona.

Spring Rolls on in AZ

Today is the first fullscale day of regular season baseball, though the Braves and Phillies opened last night. Dave and I went to one of the last spring training games a few days ago and saw the Giants and Rangers in Surprise. Here's Barry Zito delivering a pitch...blow the pic up for more detail. Zito pitched seven mostly strong innings, longer than he has usually gone during the regular season! Hopefully he'll do better this year; the last two seasons he has cost the Giants over a million dollars per victory.

Josh Hamilton patrols center field for the Rangers. Hamilton's a bona fide five tool player...hits for power and average, fields, runs, and throws well. All his talents were on display during this game. He made two fine running catches at the fence and hit a towering 420 foot home run. And, from the sound of the bat at contact, he didn't get nearly all of that pitch.

Meanwhile, the desert continues to bloom. This paloverde tree is in full flower. Many of the trees in natural settings are not blooming and don't even have any buds...it's been a fairly dry winter around Phoenix. But the trees near water sources, such as drainage ditches and in people's yards, are flowering nicely.

This is the flower of the teddy bear cholla. I have to be REALLY careful when photographing these; this cactus is best known for sticking people bigtime when they merely brush up against it. In that case a clump of the cactus will come off...in your skin...and it takes skill with tweezers or sticks to remove it. The flowers are pretty but are a little hard to spot from afar as their color is

similar to the plant itself.

More Desert Blooms

In early April, the wildflowers are beginning to fade in the Arizona desert. However, the cactus are just starting their peak bloom period, so the landscape remains beautiful. The hedgehogs bloom early; at the start of April they're at their peak or even a bit past it. This was a particularly pretty patch in White Tank Mountain Park west of Phoenix.






Buckhorn cholla are just beginning to thrive. This flower was nicely fronting a young saguaro. The buckhorns bloom in April and May; saguaros peak in May and June.

















This buckhorn is showing numerous fine blooms, with a lot more buds promising more flowers to come. I'm not sure if they're distinct species, but I've seen cactus like this with yellow, dark red, and even magenta flowers.









Here's another cristate saguaro! It's about a mile off the road in White Tank.

This is not a wilderness pic...it's the paloverde tree in Dave's back yard in Sun City West. It has good flowers now, and many more buds are ready to bloom.

Chilin' in Bisbee

I visited my friend Amy in Bisbee AZ last week and had a great time! Bisbee is a cool town with a large arts community; tolerance, creativity, and partying are de rigeur there, all of which is right up my alley. They also have the oldest continuously operating ballpark in the country. It's a laid back place; as you can see, the resident houn' dawgs at Amy's place, Ichabod and Henry Phillips, aren't exactly stressed out.

Amy and I went to Chiricahua National Monument; neither of us had been there before. It's about an hour NE of Bisbee. It features cool rock formations, sweeping views, and gnarly trees. It's a sky island; a mountain of evergreen trees surrounded by desert.

There are all sorts of neat rock towers in Chiricahua, formed by millennia of freezing and thawing. It reminded me of Bryce Canyon.

The Civilian Conservation Corps had a camp in Chiricahua during the depression, and built most of the trails in the monument. This chimney is a remnant of one of the buildings in the camp.

Amy presents Bisbee! The town has several neighborhoods, separated by hills, canyons, and a huge pit left from the copper mine, which is not currently in operation. There are many nicely preserved historic buildings, and a good selection of clubs and restaurants. It's an altogether cool place!