A pretty flower of the desert

Hello, everyone.

I was thinking about more walks and strolls to report on, but remembered a little thing that was really neat.

In the hot, low deserts this has been a good year for flowers. Not only little things like sand verbena, but larger things that bloom less often.

 A close look at the flower cluster of the ocotillo, a succulent of the hot desert.

This is a view of the plant's habit of growth.

We had never seen this plant blooming before. Possibly the fall and winter rains were just right this year. Usually they are just a stack of bare sticks out among the rocks and sand.

As it is Memorial Day weekend,  I will close with a line from In Flanders Fields that the photo above brought back to me: "To you from failing hands we throw the torch."

(Pardon the lack of underlining or italics for the title, I have no idea how to do those nice bits while hunting and pecking key spots one by one on my tablet.)

More on South Mountain Park

Hello, everyone.

I had promised more information about South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona.

This is one of the boulders with pictographs along the trail.

We enjoyed walking past the boulders and shrubs and cacti.

This little guy was hanging out in the shade. (It was around noon.)

If y'all should go to Phoenix, you should visit this park. (But bring water, and it's probably more fun if you get there before 10:30 in the morning.)

June gloom, a weather phenomenon

Hello, everyone.

We're still on the road in sunny California. Well, not-so-sunny, actually. We're needing our windbreakers!

We're north of our home latitude, so it is earlier in spring here than in south Texas. Many of the past days have been surprisingly cool. Here is a picture of the sky on one of them.

The clouds are only about halfway up on the mountains. One of the local folks explained it to us. At around this time it is often cloudy and cool, with days in the 60sF, even in May. They call it June gloom.

Weather can be so surprising.

We have been seeing some fascinating flowers but the pictures are scattered over various devices so I will wait until we are at home and can get them all in one place to put pictures up.

Walk report: South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona

Hello, everyone.

We did a training walk today--in the midst of a road trip! DH looked up the city as it was on our passing-through itinerary, and discovered this city park.

We drove over to it when we hit town. It's a mountain inside the city, sort of, and we had water bottles so we set off on a trail. The stated length was 1 1/4 mile up and the same to return. It goes to a lookout on top of the mountain.

It was already 1:30 pm local time and the temp was probably close to 90F. Full sun, of course--it's Arizona after all. The trail was rocky. Not continuous climbing, but some of the rock "steps" are a bit tall.

We walked most of the trail to the top. When we got to probably the penultimate trail marker, it informed us that while we had walked most of the distance, the remaining quarter mile was going to be a hugely steep climb. I surveyed my legs, DH asked his ankle that had broken before, and we decided that the last bit would be too much.

We walked back down, for a total of about 2 miles (3 km) and got into the car and drove the long, squiggly road to the top to see the view. It was lovely. There was an old CCC hut and some benches. Also a couple of folks were selling trinkets--necklaces, rosaries and the like--at the parking lot at the top. Pretty stuff.
Quite a number of folks had also driven up. It is a lovely view of the city.

Unfortunately the pictures I took are all either on the phone or the real camera, so they will have to wait. We did see some old petroglyphs along the path, and a lizard or two. Plenty of cacti.

This city park is quite nice. I recommend it for Camino training. I also strongly recommend walking the various trails here in the morning. It gets fairly warm in the Southwest desert after about noon. Bring water, and wear a hat and sunglasses if it's late in the morning or after noon.


Edited for tag labels.