I am taking someone out to Pan Quemado tomorrow.
I hated to spend a very decent winter day indoors or weeding, so I went
out to the Tucson Mountains. I've taken photos of this area many times, but I did a bit of scrambling today. Enjoy!
The saguaros were eye-catching as usual.
Known as Tucson Mountain Park... located west of the city.
I found myself at some resort. Despite the doomsday reports on the economy,
there were still many folks on the golf course and the pool sounded lively.
Looking east toward Tucson.
Looking north into Tucson.
Plenty of mountain views!
I started off on the Yetman Trail and quickly went into the hillsides.
I climbed an entire hill for what I though was a petroglyph.
Once I was close enough, I was able to see that it was just natural erosion of the rock. Bummer!
Back in the 1940's, some scientist saw the blackening of the saguaros and sounded the alarm.
Some blamed cars for CO2 and others thought it was a virus. It seems that it just might be natural to the saguaros. You would think
that in over 60 years with our population explosion, that the CO2 would have wiped
every saguaro out and the same with a virus. They're still here and still doing fine.
The Desert Fairy Dusters (Calliandra eriophylla) were starting to bloom.
I was watching the Echinocereus fendleri for blooms or buds, but nothing.
Photos above submitted by Joel Smith in Tucson, Arizona. You can see more of his Arizona photos at:
www.BajaArizona.com.
