Favorite Pictures of Trees and Flowers

I took thousands of pictures while hiking this past year and some even turned out OK. Digital photography is a wonderful thing because it used to be that you'd have to develop your film to discover that only 2 of the 36 pictures you took were any good. Now, you can snap away freely and if you don't like the pictures, just hit DELETE and you're done.

A professional photographer I am not. All of my pictures were taken with your basic point and shoot camera with a minimum of fussing with the controls. I saw something I liked, pointed the camera and snapped. The main camera was a Canon S3IS. I like this camera because it has a 12X optical zoom but it broke on me twice, unfortunately. The first time I sent it to Canon for repair and now it's just sitting waiting to go back again. The other camera I used was a Canon PowerShot A540, a real basic camera. It worked OK but I really missed the extra zoom, especially when I came upon Bighorn Sheep, which I did a few times. I didn't do any real photo processing. I just uploaded them to iPhoto on my Mac and that was that. A couple of them I changed to B&W just for fun and a few I enhanced the color if they were too dark but basically they are as I shot them.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites. Click on them to enlarge and if you'd to download one for your personal use, right click and save it to either your photo application or your desktop.

Trees don't last to long in the desert without a constant source of water. That's why there are so few of them. I took a number of pictures of dead trees and, for some reason, they tend to look better in black and white. At least, to me they do.

This bent over palm is near my home in La Quinta and is near where a water tank used to be. They put a road up to the location and planted trees around it but once the water system was upgraded, and the tank no longer used, all the trees died.

The palm in the Indian Canyons is still living despite its bent over position. I always call it the Rainbow Palm and people who go there seem to know what I'm talking about. I don't know if they have a name for it but to me it will always be the Rainbow Palm.

We did not have a great year in the desert for wildflowers but we did have enough rain so that we got a couple weeks of decent displays. I found the best place for flowers this spring was in South Palm Desert near the Visitors Center for the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa National Monument.

There were good displays of Desert Chicory.

The Notch Leaf Phacelia were particularly abundant and I discovered that they can irritate your legs if you brush up against them.

These little Windmill flowers were also all around. They were probably the most delicate little flower I saw this year.

The area off the Art Smith Trail was also pretty good for flowers, especially Cacti. There were a couple of days where the whole trail was lined with flowers although it didn't last for very long.

Cholla, Red Barrel and Brittlebush in the late afternoon light near the Schey Trail.

Red Barrel Cactus flowers in bloom.

The Boo Hoff Trail in La Quinta was also an area where I came across a fair amount of flowers. These pictures were taken over a couple week period in February on different sections of the trail.

The green bloom of the Silver Cholla.

Ghost Flowers are pretty common along Devil Canyon at the southern end of the Boo Hoff.

The Desert Five Spot just might be the prettiest little flower that blooms in the desert. This one was sort of a late bloomer and I saw it about two months after everything else had died.

While not really a picture of flowers I liked this photo so much I decided to include it here. I also might include it in the upcoming section about my favorite animal shots, too.

I also got a few shots in the mountains nearby but really didn't get any good floral shots in the high mountains. I think I may have just been there at the wrong time.

This one was taken on the trail on the way down from Cahuilla Mountain. It was part of a long plant that grew in a meadow up there. I have no idea what it is.

I was just about the take a picture of this Silver Cholla bloom at the start of my hike to Sugarloaf Mountain when a little milkweed bug decided to hop in my picture. He made a nice contrast to the color of the flower so I decided not to shoo him away.

People who've never been to the desert or who don't look to closely have no idea what incredible beauty exists in this stark and often barren landscape. But with just a little rain the desert turns into a carpet of wildflowers and lush life. Here's hoping for some good winter storms and more flowers this spring. I'm ready to point and click. How about you?

Desert Art

DAY SEVENTY FOUR

The desert has long been a haven for artists, a place of repose, tranquility, beauty. It is easy to see why. The colors and shadows are always changing and, as someone once said, it's the only land that God loved so much that he didn't cover it with trees.

Today I took a hike into that world of art on the Art Smith Trail.

The hills around the Art Smith Trail are green and lush with vegetation.

As I hike to the trail, I'm wondering if I'm still in the desert.

The trail is lined with flowers all around. This area has the most flowers of different types that I've seen yet this year.

In addition to many of the various flowers I've seen on other hikes, today I saw these Checker Fiddlenecks.

I also saw quite a few of these Rose Mallows.

Several Cacti were in bloom

Red Barrel Cactus blooms close up.

Despite being close to town and Hwy 74 it doesn't take long on the Art Smith Trail to feel like you're in the wilderness, being swallowed up in the peacefulness of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

I take a few minutes to rest and reflect near this palm oasis before heading home. If only I had some water colors.

Moving on up.

Day Fifty

I am really drawn to the Martinez Mountain landslide area for several reasons.  One, it's close to my house.  I can get there in about fifteen minutes.  Two, no one goes there.  It's an area that I am pretty sure I can hike in utter solitude, which I like.  Three, there's a lot area to explore there. Four, the potential discoveries are almost limitless.  

I went out there a couple weeks ago and found a trail and what I think might be some kind of graves.  I went back today to see where the trail goes.  Read about my previous visit here.

I follow the trail to the mouth of the canyon but it seems to end there.  I scout around to see if it went up a ridge or just ends in the canyon and it appears to end at the canyon so I follow the canyon.

Once up the canyon I decide to go up the side of the canyon to see if I can get a better view and maybe see where the trail went.

Whoa!  What's this?  If I were in the mountains I'd call it a meadow.  I don't know what I call it in the middle of a HUGE rockpile.  Maybe a flat.

I wonder around the flat for a while but do not see much in the way of signs of human activity.  It probably wouldn't be a place Native Americans would have lived because there's no food or water.  I did find this cairn so I know someone's been here.

I also found this old shoe.

This also could possibly be another grave.  A lot of times graves were marked with stones like this and it's the right size.

If anyone thinks they can't grow anything, they should try cactus.  These Red Barrels are going quit well right in this rock.

After wandering around for quite a while looking for more trails or signs of previous visitors I have to head home.  But on my way down I spot yet another trail.  I'm sure there are many more here to discover when I can spend days exploring rather than just a few hours.

Stay Tuned

Day Thirty Six

It's great to have a Jeep in the desert; it saves a LOT of walking.  This afternoon I was heading to go out and do a hike near the Fish Traps and took a little detour.  I decided to drive out near the Martinez Landslide, a big section of that mountain fell off about a bazillion years ago, and see what I could find over there.  I drove the Jeep up a sandy wash until I got to where it was time to walk.

Usually, it's a sign like this that tells me it's time to walk.

There are some gnarly Pencil Cholla out here.  I gotta watch out for these.

As I walk toward the landslide I'm surveying the landscape and wondering if there's an Indian trail around here.  The Torres Martinez Reservation is not far away and there have to be trails reaching up into the mountains toward springs, hunting areas and pinyon gathering areas.  I notice this rock and from a distance wonder if those are cupules, small rock art indentations but upon closer inspection it appears to just be from gun shots.

This, however, is a little more interesting.  I don't know what this might be but ancient grave is the first thing that comes to mind.

Here's another little rock pile which had at one time been fenced off and now has some kind of survey marker near it.  Interesting.  Not seeing anything else in the vicinity I start heading back to the Jeep but decide to walk along the hillside still thinking a trail might be nearby.

And whaddaya know?  A trail.  I have a little time left before it gets dark so let's see where it goes.

It goes up.

It looks like there are several areas that may be sleeping circles, sections of land that are cleared of rocks for sleeping along the trail.  I don't know if that's what this is but it is certainly possible.

You can tell this trail hasn't been used much when there is a big creosote bush growing right in the middle of it.

It looks as if the trail keeps heading up toward this canyon but it's time to go so I'll have to find that out another time.

On the way down to the Jeep I notice another little small rock circle.  This is obviously manmade, but by whom?

I just knew one of those nasty cactus spines was going to bite me.

Upon returning to the Jeep, I notice that under the Closed to All Motor Vehicles sign is another sign.  This sign talks about protecting Native American antiquities and GRAVES.  I don't know if those are graves but this is the first hike I have ever been on that I've seen one of those signs.  It makes me wonder.

If nothing else, I know this place is a graveyard for old cars.

Finding a trail for the first time is always exciting because you never know where it will lead and what you may discover along the way.  It seems to me that there could be a number of trails out here that could lead to new routes (to me at least) to springs, canyons and areas of ancient history.  This hike is definitely to be continued......

Water, Water Everywhere. Well, not quite.

Day Twenty Two

The desert is known for its dryness.  One dictionary definition of desert is: a dry barren area of land, esp. one that is covered with sand, that is characteristically desolate, waterless and without vegetation.  

It is obvious that the person who wrote that has never been to the desert.  While the desert can be dry, it is full of life.  There are robust plants and animals living in the desert and water can be found if you only know where to look.  

Today I went out and looked.

We started at the top of the La Quinta Cove.  A few public art pieces meet you at the trailhead.

The only bear you'll ever see in the Bear Creek area.

A big flounder caught in the cove Fish Trap.

The trail starts here.

There's an old Indian trail that leads up to an unnamed canyon.  It's seen a lot more traffic than the last time I hiked up here.

Some kind soul even added a sign.  Not that it's really needed.

Walking into the canyon

A not totally dry waterfall.

Looking down from above.  This water has been here for over five weeks.  It is the only water within miles.

A beautiful little red barrel cactus

More water upstream

Looking out of the canyon to the distant city below.

This is just one of the many little unnamed canyons around the desert.  We found water in this one.  Who knows what we'll find in the next?