Canyon de Chelly

Sculpted sandstone at Canyon de Chelly
National Monument, Arizona.

Canyon de Chelly, a moderate-sized national monument in the northeast corner of Arizona, was not one of my planned destinations through the Southwest this spring, but it made sense to stop given my route from New Mexico to southern Utah. It was a brief stop, but a treat!

The monument is within the Navajo Nation, a large Native American reservation that stretches from the Grand Canyon to the Four Corners region. The Tribe and the Park Service have joint management responsibility for the monument, and that specific arrangement is manifest in some of the not-so-ordinary arrangements for an NPS site (more on that in a bit).

The monument is accessible from the small town of Chinle on US route 191 and this is essentially where the canyon begins. It deepens to the east, branching into several canyons. There are north and south rim drives but I only had time to observe the canyon from the south rim and make a few stops before heading to southern Utah.

Maps of Canyon de Chelly National Monument. At left: Map of Canyon de Chelly's location in northeast Arizona in the Four Corners region by Shannon1, cropped and arrow added to original map, CC BY-SA 4.0 license. At right: General map of the monument by the National Park Service, public domain.

At the end of the south rim road is a viewpoint of Spider Rock, a picturesque pair of red rock spires that tower hundreds of feet above the canyon floor. At the lookout point there are some wonderful panoramas of the winding canyon and vegetation growing below.

Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

At only one location in the monument are visitors allowed to walk unguided into the canyon, and that is the short trail to White House. The trail begins on the mesa and then descends pretty steeply into the canyon. Several plots of land are visible on the canyon floor – these farmed areas are privately owned by members of the Navajo Nation.

Once one has descended several hundred feet into the canyon, it is only a short distance more to the White House, which are ancient ruins set in the base of a towering rock cliff. The ruins are similar to those found at Mesa Verde and Bandelier and were constructed centuries before the Navajo people entered the area. In fact, the Canyon has apparently been inhabited by humans for some 5000 years.

Two views of the White House at Canyon de Chelly. The upper level has original remains of Ancient Puebloan dwellings while the structures on the canyon floor below have apparently been restored recently.

Near the White House, several Navajo artisans had set up tables on the dusty canyon floor and were selling jewelry and pottery. This vending was apparently one of the unique arrangements between the Park Service and the Tribe. The other is that guided tours throughout other areas of the canyon are offered by Navajo Nation members. I spoke with one artisan for a bit and purchased a small seed pot from her which was engraved with her name on the bottom and “CDC”, the abbreviation for the monument. She resided in Chinle but her family owned a plot of land in the canyon.    

Some petroglyphs near the White House.

Carlsbad Caverns backcountry

One of the best ways to experience the National Parks is in the backcountry, off the beaten path. There is a time and place for the more curated nature experience, the “park” component of the National Park System, and frankly is the only way of engaging with some of the most iconic geologic features of the parks. At Carlsbad Caverns for example, it seems unlikely one could ever tour the caverns without running into a fair number of people. Similarly, if the grandeur of Yosemite Valley is to be experienced, it usually has to be shared with the crowds that assemble beneath its most iconic features.

Rattlesnake Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, April 2018.

Yet the backcountry of many national parks offers another treasure: solitude. It is a commodity in increasingly short supply in today’s noisy and hyperactive world, and one that seems to be vastly underappreciated given how few park visitors are willing to get off the paved trails and away from the visitor centers.

During my spring trip through the Southwest I was fortunate to backcountry camp at White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and later on, at Bryce Canyon in southern Utah. The latter two parks offered an opportunity for a night of complete solitude where I was likely the only person out in the wilderness within miles. At Carlsbad Cavers I hiked into Rattlesnake Canyon from a dirt loop road winds through Chihuahuan Desert habitat west of the entrance to the caverns.

Unopened flowers of ocotillo, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, April 2018.

Texas walnut growing in a dry wash.

The region around Rattlesnake Canyon is a collection of rounded mesas dissected by winding canyons, not unlike the topography I remember from the southern part of Mesa Verde National Park. Ocotillo, prickly pear cacti, and shrubs grew throughout the dry slopes. It wasn’t as colorful as the Sonoran Desert vegetation I observed just days before in Saguaro National Park, but the blooming ocotillo added some vibrant color to the desert scrub.

At the bottom of the valleys were water would be more frequently available (no water was to be seen at all during my visit) small trees – Texas walnut (Juglans microcarpa) grew. One of the more interesting plants to catch my attention, growing throughout the park, was “sotol”, an interesting yet forbidding plant that grows in basal rosettes of pointed leaves like some species of Yucca. The long slender leaves bear sharp hooks which are very adept at catching clothes.

Sotol is formally Dasilirion wheeleri, and a member of the Asparagaceae family. Yucca, which it resembles in overall growth form is actually in a different plant family, the Agavaceae. Interestingly sotol has been used to produce both beer-like and distilled alcoholic drinks. Fibers of the plant were also useful to the Ancient Puebloan people of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Sotol, Carlsbad Caverns NP, April 2018.

Barbary sheep near the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This species is non-native
and was introduced into the area from northern Africa.

Quitobaquito

Along the US-Mexico border, about 15 miles west of the border crossing between Lukeville, Arizona and Sonoyta, Mexico is the small oasis of Quitobaquito in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The shortest route to the site is a dirt road that, for much of its length, parallels the international border. In fact, in places it is no more than 20 meters from the metal fence on the US side, a barrier less formidable than many backyard fences. The saguaros and desert scrub take no notice of the artificial line in the sand so important to humans.

At Quitobaquito, perhaps a half kilometer north of the border, a tiny creeklet finds its origin in a spring that itself seems to just emerge from the base of a small non-descript slope of dry Sonoran Desert soil. The Park Service has lined the creeklet with concrete, no doubt to preserve the integrity of the waterway, because so minute is the flow that it seems like the desert dust could consume the trickle of water with no effort. As I walked along the creeklet, looking for its source, I could see signs of researcher presence – a short submerged PVC tube that I’m guessing houses a temperature sensor or other device, and some red plates underwater about which I cannot surmise their purpose.

Arriving at Quitobaquito (left) and some saguaro cacti near the oasis (right).

The creeklet ends in a rather large shallow pond to the south which is encircled by a narrow but dense band of sedges (just like Schoenoplectus americanus of west coast wetlands, though I’m not positive it is the same species). It looked like there was widgeon grass (Ruppia) in the water. The pond and creeklet were lined with colorful flowering species that I had not seen elsewhere in the Monument.

The pond at Quitobaquito. Sedges line the edge of the pond.

Why the effort to protect flow in the creeklet? This little oasis is home to an endangered fish species, the Quitobaquito pupfish (Cyprinodon eremus). I saw quite a few fish in the creeklet that led to the pond. The species is dimorphic in color – larger blue fish are reproductively mature males and females and immature males are smaller and light grey-brown, blending in well with the substrate. Incredibly these pupfish can tolerate high salinity, very high temperatures, and low oxygen conditions. The fish I observed were skittish and apparently territorial, chasing one another in short bursts of activity.

Quitobaquito pupfish. A arrow points to the female or immature male at left since these fish
blend in much better with the mud than the blue reproductive males.

Flowering plants near the pond: Heliotropium curassavicum (left) and Funastrum cynanchoides (right).

References

Reistad, A. 2012. Pupfish. In: National border, national park: A history of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, at: https://organpipehistory.com/orpi-a-z/pupfish/

Spellenberg R. 2012. Sonoran Desert Wildflowers. 2^nd ed. Falcon Guides, Guiford, MT.

Flowering plants near the creeklet: Anemopsis californica (left) and unknown pink-flowered species (right).

Arizona cacti

Heading east from San Diego I descended into the hot Imperial Valley and the Sonoran Desert. Ocotillos appeared signaling entry into this desert province. After a relatively cool spring in northern California, I wasn’t quite ready to be thrust into summer temperatures. My first major destination was Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, just north of the Arizona-Mexico border. It lies right in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.

Organ Pipe and other cacti at Alamo Canyon.

Night sky at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

I first visited Organ Pipe 20 years ago, when with a class of UC Santa Cruz students we descended on northern Mexico to study the ecology of the Gulf of California. The road to Sonoyta, Mexico passes bisects the monument. I arrived after dark, and turned up a dirt road to a small campsite at the head of Alamo Canyon. It was a warm evening. I stayed up for some time photographing landscapes dominated by Saguaro cacti. A half moon shone brightly in the sky above but was gone by 4 AM when I awoke again to photograph stars and the Milky Way.

With the new day, the diversity of cacti was evident from the start. Saguaros were very common, and organ pipe cacti became more common as I made my way up the valley for a morning hike. There were menacing cholla cacti, with their beautiful golden spines covering plants like a blanket. I also recognized the prickly pear cactus, Opuntia.

The organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi) is a collection of rather large stems, emerging from a common base. The namesake of the monument, the species is more common in Mexico than in the US and has a limited presence here due to its intolerance of frost. Flowers apparently only open during the night and are primary pollinated by bats.

Saguaros (Carnegiea gigantea) were actually very common at Organ Pipe Cactus NM, growing in most regions of the monument that I observed. However, there is a whole national park named in honor of this species, and that was my next destination. Bisected by the city of Tuscon, Saguaro National Park comprises two units east and west of the city. I briefly visited some of both, catching the sunset at the west unit and doing some morning hiking at the east unit.

Saguaro cacti. Left: spines (which are actually modified leaves on cacti) on a plant at Saguaro NP. Right: An open flower on a plant at Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

The morning of my hike started off warm. I began at a trailhead at Loma Verde and hiked about 2 miles into the Saguaro Wilderness along the Squeeze Pen and Carillo trails. Saguaro, barrel cacti, and Opuntia were common. Mesquite, palo verde (literally, “green stick”), and other trees and shrubs were also abundant in the area. At Wildhorse Canyon I found pools of water remaining in a wash.

Flowering cholla cacti at Saguaro NP. At left is the pencil cholla, Cylindropuntia arbuscula.

Though not a cactus, ocotillos were common at both Organ Pipe Cactus and Saguaro NP and were frequently in bloom, their bright red flowers adding color to the landscape. At Saguaro I saw many ocotillos with leaves (some green, some senescing), a sight that may not be particularly common since these plants readily shed their leaves during times when water is scarce. It is a true deciduous desert species.

Ocotillos. Left: With leaves at Saguaro NP. Right: Hummingbird visiting flowers at Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

Wildlife was fairly common at both of these desert parks. I saw coyotes (Organ Pipe), a Gila Monster (Saguaro), a hummingbird (Organ Pipe) and other birds, a deer (Saguaro), Desert pupfish (Organ Pipe), and lots of lizards (both parks).

Barrel cactus, Ferrocactus, at Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

Chainfruit cholla cactus, Cylindropuntia fulgida, at Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

An organ pipe cactus near the US/Mexico border that is half skeleton at this point.

Prickly pear, barrel cactus, and saguaros at Saguaro NP.

Sunset with Saguaro cacti and ocotillo at Saguaro NP.

Incredible plants: ocotillo

A flowering ocotillo in the western Arizona desert,
April 2017.

Primary productivity in desert environments is low. Water is the limiting resource for desert vegetation, whereas sunlight is available in overabundance. Desert plants generally only attain relatively short stature, and either flourish in annual bursts of growth (when rains come) or grow slowly over years and decades, responding opportunistically to rainfall availability over the longer term. Plants like cacti or the iconic Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) of the southwest follow the latter strategy. In the life cycle of the ocotillo, one of my favorite desert plants, this species sort of embodies a bit of both strategies.

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) is indicative of the Sonoran Desert, the hot low-elevation deserts of southeast California, eastern Arizona, and northwest Mexico. In terms of growth habit, the plants are one of the larger of the woody desert species in the southwestern US, reaching up to 10 m in height. They may live a century or two.

Germination of a young ocotillo requires a significant summer rainfall event of several centimeters. Most young seedlings will succumb to drought, frost or herbivores. Survivors become larger and woody. The stems of adult plants have a mottled grey and black surface with furrows. Sharp grey foreboding spines are abundant all over the stems.

Ocotillo leaves are short, spoon-shaped, and of two types. The primary leaves emerge from a petiole (which when dried, becomes the numerous spines lining the stems), while secondary leaves emerge in clusters directly from the base of the spines of the primary leaves and don’t have associated spines of their own. Secondary leaves are produced episodically and gorw in profusion very shortly after a good rain soaks the soil. The plant doesn’t invest for the long-term in these secondary leaves, rather they are produced without a cuticle (allowing easy CO₂ uptake but making them susceptible to water loss). After a few weeks mining the soil for water, the plant sheds its temporary leaves and will go physiologically dormant during a subsequent period of drought. Dormant plants retain living cells internally, but shallow roots die off and secondary leaves are lost.

Bare stem (left) on a plant from Joshua Tree National Park, CA, Feb 2012 and secondary leaves (right) on a plant from Arizona, April 2017. 

Inflorescence, western Arizona, April 2017.

Ocotillo are placed in their own plant family, the Fouquieriaceae, a small group of woody species endemic to Mexico and the southwestern US. The family is believed to have evolved in the subtropics during the Miocene (5-24 mya). The species grows below 2500 ft and occurs from California and Baja California eastward to Texas. The species is not tolerant of freezing temperatures which may be one factor limiting its occurrence in the Mojave and Great Basin deserts to the north where winter-time frost is likely.

Flowers are produced on branch tips. From a distance they appear as red flames. Flower petals are up to 2.5 cm long and are fused into a trumpet-shaped tube. A tuft of red stamens emerges beyond the corolla extending the length of the flower. Hummingbirds enjoy the nectar produced by the flowers.

References

Baldwin BG et al. (eds). 2012. The Jepson Manual. Higher Plants of California. 2^nd ed. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Munz PA. 1962. California Desert Wildflowers. University of California Press, Berkeley CA.

Pavlik BM. 2008. The California Deserts. An Ecological Rediscovery. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Leaf-less ocotillo in the Sonoran desert portion of Joshua
Tree National Park, Feb 2012.

The Fiery Furnace

The Fiery Furnace, Arches National Park, April 2017.

Arches National Park in eastern Utah does not have any designated wilderness areas, but the Fiery Furnace is one specially regulated area that is accessible by permit only. It is located in the central region of the park near the main road that winds from south to north. Should one describe the Furnace succinctly, it might be called a labyrinth of rocky pillars.

Upon the suggestion of an acquaintance I met on the trail during my first day at Arches this past April, I checked in at the park’s visitor’s center to see if a permit for the Furnace was available. In fact, a permit could be had for the following day which was to be my last morning in Moab. Because I had plans to be in Mesa Verde NP by that afternoon, it had to be a quick visit of necessity.

Recent NAIP imagery of the Fiery Furnace area (from 2017
USGS topographic map). The parking lot and access trail to
the labyrinth of fins can be seen in the lower left corner.

The morning was calm and quiet with only a car or two in the parking lot of the Fiery Furnace. I entered the area via a short trail that led northward. Beyond that, permitted hikers were free to explore as they pleased, but regulations required visitors to walk only in sandy washes and on rocks to protect the more delicate geologic features such as soil crusts and sand dunes. Because I was unfamiliar with the area, I had no detailed map, and my schedule couldn’t afford the possibility of getting lost for any length of time, I decided that I would not wander too deeply into the maze.

The labyrinth of rocky fins at the Fiery Furnace formed from the same geologic processes that led to the creation of the iconic stone arches present elsewhere in the park. The fins resulted from ancient uplift of sandstone slabs that were underlain and pushed up by salt-infused mounds, followed by erosion of the uplifted rock along seams. The outcome: a series of parallel rusty red stone blocks set above the rest of the terrain. In the Furnace, the fins are oriented from northwest to southeast and have sandy gullies in between them.

At the start of my hike, I followed a wash at the western edge of the Furnace that was relatively open. It narrowed in places where one had to squeeze between rocks. Next I ventured a little deeper into the labyrinth, following a few small passages that meandered to the east and the north. I found a handful of markers for a self-guided loop trail that the Park Service had set up to guide visitors through the area. Along one of these shaded passages I passed under a small stone arch. The passage continued for a ways longer until it reached a terminus, boxed in by tall fins. At this dead end, a hole in the rock above created a natural sunroof.

Among the fins. At left a small sunroof in the sandstone rock can be seen in the top of a small alcove. At right: an arch I traveled under. 

Temporary sand sculptures crafted by light rainfall at night.

A light rain had fallen the night before my visit. In the sandy washes of the Furnace, there were little shallow saucers of coalesced sand gains on the otherwise smooth sand, the temporary sculptures of single rain drops. The other lovely sand features, as yet undisturbed from the footprints of human visitors, were animal tracks. Several types of fauna appeared to be involved in creating these, among them birds and lizards.

Vegetation wasn’t uncommon in the Fiery Furnace and it included pinyon pine and juniper, the common large woody species of the southwestern deserts. There were also other woody plants including two species of oaks and flowering shrubs of the rose family.

The narrow passages between the tall rock fins were shaded and cool and many probably seldom saw direct sunlight during the course of the day. In some of the more open areas of the Furnace, the crusts were more developed on the soil surface. These biological crusts (also called “cryptogamic crusts”) are a dark biological coating of living and dead organisms at the soil surface. Their biotic composition includes cyanobacteria, fungi, and algae (Pavlik 2008). The crusts provide stability to the surface soils, reducing erosion. Their other functions in the desert include storing nutrients and enhancing seed germination of vascular plants (Pavlik 2008).

Cryptogamic soil crust in the Fiery Furnace.

Having now seen enough to know that the Furnace is one of the gems of Arches, I hope to someday return for a time to get lost in the labyrinth of fins and alluring passages.

References

Morris TH, Ritter SM, Laycock DP. 2012. Geology Unfolded. An Illustrated Guide to the Geology of Utah’s National Parks. BYU Press.

Pavlik BM. 2008. The California Deserts. An Ecological Rediscovery. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Fiery Furnace and with the La Sal Mountains in the background.

Animal tracks in the sand.

Black Rock Canyon at Joshua Tree

A Joshua Tree in the lower Black Rock Canyon.

Joshua Tree National Park was the final NPS stop on my April loop through the Southwest. The park straddles the border of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, the former encompassing the northern part of the park and extending up to Death Valley, and the latter desert encompassing the southern portion of the park.

Arriving after dark after driving through Kingman, AZ, Mojave National Preserve, and a short segment of old Route 66, I camped in the north central part of the park at the Indian Cove Campground. It was not crowded and a lovely spot, encircled about by the large fractured boulders that are one of the common landscape features of Joshua Tree. The morning light revealed all of the flowers present near my campsite, especially yellow patches of Desert Senna. The area looked like a tended garden with rocks and the lovely flora.

Packing up camp, I drove to the northwest corner of the park for a hike up Black Rock Canyon. There is another campground at the trailhead with a series of trails that radiate to the east and south. The canyon is initially wide, sandy, and full of the other iconic feature of the park: Joshua Trees (Yucca brevifolia). I saw (and heard) several quail in this area including a pair or two. The birds quickly scurried to and fro over the ground, not at all interested in getting close to a human.

Quail at Black Rock Canyon.

With some elevation gain heading along the trail to the south, the valleys grew narrower and rockier, and new woody species and more flowers became evident. I first noticed juniper, then pines (Pinus monophylla) and oaks. Joshua Trees were still present, as was the related but shorter species, Mojave yucca (Y. shidigera).

There were many flowers in bloom, including orange desert mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), the common desert dandelion (Malacothrix glabrata), bladderpod (Peritoma arborea), and Wallace’s woolly daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei), a tiny yellow aster found in sand along the edges of the trails. I also observed vines and fruits of wild cucumber, a plant not uncommon in the chaparral of coastal California, with its spiked fruits shaped like kiwis. The fruits in this area were particularly large and seemed to be among the largest I’ve ever seen of this species.

Diversity of blooming plants. Clockwise from upper left: Sphaeralcea ambigua (desert mallow), Phacelia sp., Malacothrix glabrata (desert dandelion), Salvia columbariae (chia), Layia glandulosa (white tidy-tips), and Eschscholzia glyptosperma (desert gold poppy). 

Many cacti were in bloom with their very showy flowers. The beavertail (Opuntia basilaris) had large flowers with concentric layers of ruffled pink petals. There were similarly-colored flowers on the hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii) and red blooms on the related E. mojavensis. The flowers of the beavertail had a sweet, perhaps fruity, smell that seemed familiar but I could make the association in my mind.

Blooming cacti. Left: Opuntia basilaris (beavertail cactus). Center: Echinocereus engelmannii. Right: E. mojavensis.

The Black Rock Canyon area had an interesting assortment of wildlife too: the quail previously mentioned, many flying insects, chipmunk, and lizard. I had to pass a swarm of bees on the trail that was congregating around the tiniest of water holes seeping from a rock.

More desert fauna. The bees at right were congregating around a very tiny water
seep from a desert rock.

I am still learning about the differences among the various deserts of the Southwest. The Mojave is the smallest and driest of these deserts (MacKay 2013). Various maps show somewhat different boundaries between the southwest deserts, but basically the Mojave Desert stretches from Joshua Tree NP in the south to the Landcaster area in the west, Death Valley National Park in the north, and the southern tip of Nevada and northwest corner of Arizona to the east (Pavlik 2008, Mackay 2013). To the north of the Mojave is the cooler desert of the Great Basin that encompasses most of Nevada, while to the south and east is the Sonoran Desert that stretches south into the Baja and Sonoran regions of northern Mexico.

Two perspectives on the geographic extent of the Mojave Desert and nearby deserts in the US Southwest. My travels through the Southwest took me through the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, Arizona/New Mexico Plateau, and Mojave Desert. Base maps from the USGS and EPA; in the public domain.

Sunrise at the Indian Cove Campground.

Some characteristic species can help guide one through the various deserts of the region. The Joshua Trees are indicative of the Mojave, occurring in places from NW Arizona to Joshua Tree to the high desert north of Los Angeles. The Sonoran desert has the iconic saguaro cactus (not seen on my trip) and the wonderful ocotillo with its flaming branch tips of red flowers. I did not see ocotillo in the northern part of Joshua Tree (which is Mojave territory), but saw it in abundance at the southern end of the park on a previous trip (that area is Sonoran territory). Interestingly, I also saw a population along Interstate 40 south of Kingman, AZ.

The Mojave Desert has a high diversity of plant species (>2600), a wide range of elevations which provides for a diversity of habitats, and a rate of plant endemism of about 25% (MacKay 2013). Mackay (2013) suggests the area may be under-explored botanically, with the possibility of future plant discoveries.

References

MacKay P. 2013. Mojave Desert Wildflowers. 2^nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield

Pavlik BM. 2008. The California Deserts. An Ecological Rediscovery. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Arizona's canyons and cinder cones

After backpacking for a night in the Petrified Forest, the rest of my time in northern Arizona was a bit of a whirlwind of short visits to a couple of other NPS and BLM sites including Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, the south rim of the Grand Canyon, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and BLM land near Kingman for wildflowers.

Sunset Crater Volcano is a small monument located just a short distance north of Flagstaff. It features a black and brick red cinder cone that erupted less than a thousand years ago, and an older and shorter volcano. The smooth slopes of the mountain are lightly forested.

View of Sunset Crater Volcano from the west.

The Grand Canyon is of course world famous, though this was my first time ever visiting the park. I didn’t leave much time in my schedule at all that day, so my visit consisted of a few stops at lookout points along the south rim. The canyon is immense, although I’m not sure I was as impressed with the view as I was with the view from Canyonlands NP the week prior in Utah.

Fisheye view of the Grand Canyon from Moran Point on the south rim.

Walnut Canyon.

Walnut Canyon National Monument is another small NPS unit in the Flagstaff area. A canyon several hundred feet deep winds through the area with grey and beige colored striated rock forming the walls of the canyon. Like Mesa Verde and Bandelier, the canyon contains Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings which form one of the main attractions of the site. The canyon floor, slopes, and tops of the mesas are forested with juniper, pinyon pine, and Douglas fir. Banana yucca and Opuntia cacti were common.

En route to southern California, my last Arizona adventures were in the Kingman area in the northwest part of the state. Some distance east of Kingman along Interstate 40 I began to notice abundant wildflowers as I was driving, including the orange flowers of desert mallow. So, in Kingman I stopped at the BLM office to scope out some potential places to wander around and I ended up exploring a little along the western slope of the Hualapai Range. I found a diversity of plants in bloom and collected a few small specimens to press in a book. Farther along I40, south of Kingman, I also discovered blooming ocotillo, one of my favorite desert plants. Growing in tall scraggly tufts from the ground, this species cannot be missed even from a fast-moving car, and even less so when it shows off its fiery red flowers.

Left: Forested volcanic field on a slope just west of Sunset Crater Volcano. Right: Bright yellow lichens colonizing volcanic rock.

Whiptail lizard at Walnut Creek National Monument.

Cliff Dwellings at Walnut Canyon. Unfortunately early explorers and collectors damaged many of the dwellings in this area, including using dynamite to knock down the ancient walls.

Colorado River at Grand Canyon National Park from
Desert View on the south rim.