Sunset in Saguaro National Park

This image was created in the west side of Saguaro National Park this summer in the Sonorran desert. I searched for some place where the sunset light would create interesting color. Unfortunately, there were almost no flowers except for the Saguaros themselves which still had some next to their fruit (which is yummy but don't try to pick it yourself). The below image is a composite of 9 images, so it is extraordinary high resolution and will print very well at the largest sizes available. The cacti in front are Teddybear Chollas, and the iconic ones in the back are Saguaro. Read more about the saguaro and the cholla on wikipedia. It takes Saguaros something like 70 years to develop their first sidearm!


Buy a print.

There is a more square crop of this image available too.

Picacho Peak

I recently spent some time in Southern Arizona with my family. We hiked in Picacho Peak State park, which is on the highway between Tucson and Phoenix. Early spring (late March and early April) this park explodes with wildflowers. You can also go up to the top of the peak but you have to do some scrambling with cables stuck in the rocks and such. Lots of fun. I took a few pictures there that I'd like to share. The time of day wasn't entirely right for good light, but I still like them. Much larger versions are available in the links underneath the images.

Lupine, Poppies and Saguaro:


Poppies and Saguaro skeleton:


Sea of lupine, Saguaro and Picacho Peak


Sea of flowers:


Enjoy!

Saguaros

Saguaros are the iconic cactuses from the Sonoran desert that spans Mexico and Arizona. I was in southern Arizona this spring on a little vacation with my family. This was before the rather ill-thought out law requiring non-citizens to carry immigration papers on their persons came into effect. Although I do believe a lot of the reporting on this law has been overly sensational (the requirement is already a federal law), being a very legal immigrant myself I am quite ambivalent about it as it reeks rather of racial profiling. But enough of that. I have lots of pictures from that trip that I haven't put up yet. One thing I put up was some sunrise pictures from the goosenecks, which we visited on the way back. We also hiked a little in Picacho Peak State park, which I put up as a featured gallery a while ago. I will write later about that place which is a lot of fun to visit in early spring when all the poppies and other flowers are in bloom. Right now, I'll just put up a few pictures off a Saguoro that my daughter chose as her Saguaro for her junior ranger program in fantastic Saguaro National Park. This was a big giant with lots and lots of arms.

This one I call "the rocket" for obvious reasons:

Flickr link for this image.

and this "the arm." Another appropriate name would be "the finger." ;-)

Flickr link for this image.

Here is my daughter next to "her" Saguaro


It takes Saguaros 75 years to grow their first sidearm. This one has seen quite some history. I have many more images of seas of Saguaros that I still have to work up, so more later!

Saguaro NP and Sonoran desert

American klestrel

flowers and Saguaro

Sunset

Check out the rest here. I also have a nice flickr set here.