People often think of California as nothing but desert. Let me change your mind. If that is true, than this is what the desert looks like after a rainy winter. This is a California wildflower super bloom at sunrise. Poppies & wildflowers as far as I could see covering this hills. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
A nice pictograph I came across in canyon country yesterday. Probably ~800 years old. Actually saw some green pictographs as well! Very rare, but too faded for posting here. I might see if I can enhance them when I get back to my home computer.
One of my favorite wildflowers is Castilleja angustifolia (desert paintbrush). They brighten up the desert wonderfully! It is a semi-parasite plant usually robbing nutrients from grasses that it grows with. The flowers are actually the green-yellow tubes. The bright red part are bracts.
During Spring in the desert, the landscape shifts subtly. Saguaro cacti bloom, adding color to the barren terrain. A desert thrasher finds refuge on a flowering saguaro, embodying resilience in this harsh environment. Zoom in and check out the detail.
I don't condone modern graffiti in canyon country, but this one where I'm camped at the end of a finger of rim rock is interesting. This would have been a very remote place in 1946. It's still pretty remote here. I wonder what David was doing out here? An early uranium prospector maybe? He carved this in a flat, up facing piece of sandstone. There's no ancient petroglyphs nearby, fortunately.
In the center of this photo, possibly visible if you zoom in, is a really cool ancestral Puebloan ruin. I'll be visiting it in the morning. (Phone photo.)
Taking today and tomorrow off from property hunting to do a little hiking and visiting some of my favorite spots. This is Sleeping Ute Mountain in the far SW corner of Colorado My campsite view for this evening. (Phone photo.)
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