March Diversity in the West

Just some more March shots.  These pictures were all taken during the month, less than a thousand miles apart. This is an abstract rock erosion pattern in Valley of Fire State Park, near Las Vegas but a world away from the Strip.

The Lizards enjoyed the desert at Valley of Fire.  During most of the trip they held court in my suite at the MGM Grand, but they relished this excursion into their natural habitat.

Cool rock hoodoo in Valley of Fire.

A Joshua Tree, thriving in spring bloom near Death Valley.

Desert chicory in Death Valley.

It's amusing that many people from the East and Midwest seem to think of California as a place of wall to wall people.  In places like LA and the Bay Area, it can seem that way; but the large majority of the state is actually pretty wide open...like the Owens Valley here.

A joshua tree blooms in the shadow of the High Sierra.

On the way home from Vegas, the fiddlenecks were thriving east of Paso Robles.

The hills east of Paso were luxuriant in mid March.

I think these are baby blue eyes, in the Bitterwater Valley east of Shandon.

Fine green hills on a day with excellent light.

Now we're about 500 miles north...still in March.  Mount Shasta.

Northern Cali has had well above normal precipitation this season, and Shasta is shrouded in a cloak of white.

More Shasta.