Tuesday, November 26, 2013

CLIMBING DESERT MOUNTAINS, HIKING DESERT LANDSCAPES

A wonderful thing about this National Monument is that you don't have to stay on trails - you can hike cross country, scale the surrounding mountains or wander through desert washes as your heart desires. Snakes, cholla cactus, and not enough water are your only concerns! Today we went up to the top of some ridges near the campground, and hiked on rarely used trails that led between mountains to more mountain ridges. Darell tends to go for the tops of mountains and the ensuing vistas; I tend to enjoy the minutiae (and photographing my new obsession: the Barrel Cactus). The 360 degree views from the mountaintops just can't be done justice in photos, but here are a few glimpses:
This is the view as we rose from the base of the ridge
Here's an Organ Pipe Cactus growing out of the rocks at the top of this ridge
A view from my perch on the huge rocks atop the ridge
This is from another mountain ridge top we ascended later
And now for some Cactus close ups that I took while Darell climbed up mountains:

An army of Barrel Cactus spines
Spines, close up
Colorful spines
Colorful spines, close up
Ocatillo (not really a cactus, just a shrub) spines
Red spines on the tips of an Organ Pipe Cactus


2 comments:

  1. For a good mountain-top camera maybe a panorama or even fish-eye lens. When I went to Israel (long ago when their were no digital cameras) I bought a really fancy (and expensive) camera, and a $14.95 panorama camera. By far the best shots came from the panorama camera. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. Interesting! You guys have a Happy Thanksgiving, too, although I'm not quite sure how that will be possible without my homemade stuffing!

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