Saguaro National Park | Tucson | Arizona

At the top of Gates Pass in Tucson is a place to pull over and get some scenery shots of the surrounding area.  There are some ruins in this area, including the one above.

Contrary to what most people would think of a desert - there are times when it's quite colorful.  All the yellow trees are called Palo Verde.

 

Palo Verde trees bloom yellow in the spring, and then will turn green.  The trunks of the trees are also green, and the name means Green Sticks.   Unfortunately, with the partly overcast day, this one doesn't look as vibrantly colored as they are.

 

 

Cactus!  Really pretty and colorful when blooming - just don't get too close!

 

 

 

Usually a cactus will have a single color in one plant.   There were multiple ones of this type with two different colors blooming together.

Cholla, the cactus below has a nickname - the "jumping cactus".  Definitely stay extra far from them - you can imagine where they got their nickname!  They have caught me and I knew I wasn't that close!  This one is a small one.

 

The Saguaros usually look similar to this and some have many more arms on them. 

 

Some of them get tired, and their arms sag.  Technically, I have no idea why they do this, but it may just be a problem of getting older.

 

These cacti grow slowly, and may be 70 years old before sprouting branches on them.  By the time they are 150 years old, they can reach 50 feet, some of them, even taller.  Since they collect water, the bigger ones can weigh tons.

 

Saguaro cactus is home to many birds.  They drill into the cactus to make a little den for a nest.  Some birds will use abandoned spaces from previous years and build new nests.  This was taken at a different location, since I couldn't get a good shot that day.

 

 

This photo is an ocotillo, and it's not a dead plant, although it looks a bit sad.  This is what it looks like when there has been no rain.  You'll see in the following photo this (at another location) another ocotillo has had enough rain to keep leaves on the branches.   You can see a few flowers at the tips of the branches, even though it hasn't had rain recently.  When it does rain, it takes only a few days for the ocotillo to sprout lots of green leaves.

 

 

This is an ocotillo near where I'm staying and it has been full of greenery and blooms for weeks.  It's an interesting plant - just multiple stalks from the roots - with lots of thorns along the entire branches.

 

 

This might be cheating a little, but this cactus was near where I was staying, I just thought I'd add this because it's so pretty. 

 

Arizona has lots of nice sunsets.

Ignite | Neon Museum | Tucson | Arizona

A new museum has opened in Tucson -  Ignite, a "Neon Museum".  I expected mostly antique neon signs from decades gone by.  Some were, but quite a few of them were from the past couple of decades.

This is interesting, on the far right is a note that claims this last drive-in showed the last movie in October, 2009. 

I'm thinking this one was from a casino.  I imagine casinos have lots of old signs.

I'm not sure if this restaurant went out of business, but I know they've been around in this decade, or close to it.

Here's more of what I expected.

Mexican food!   I'd be there for a burrito!

 

There is a Valencia road in Tucson, possibly they had a grocery store there.

 

 

Nice collection of old clocks. 

 

When motels had neon signs to lure people in......

 

Not sure where this would have been - might be a motel. 

This was an interesting sign - instead of being neon, all the lights around on the arrow lit up in succession - with a little click for each light.  Old technology, but it was cool.

 

 

This is a nice old one, the words lit up one at a time, and I had to time the shot to have both lit at the same time.

 

This was from a burger place, reminds me that McDonald's had burgers this price too!

I like this one.

 

There were a few walls of just signs collected - I like the one that says "No Trespassing Between 7 pm and 7 am"  I guess any other time - trespassing is welcomed.  The "No Sniveling" is a good one too.

 

 

There were two of these scenes set up, looking like old-time soda fountains.

 

 

 

Nothing to do with signs at all, but this was part of the collection.  They had a video playing of an old Groucho Marx show.  As I walked through, someone on the TV mentioned something about the 1950's.  I'm thinking the TV itself and the antenna are from that era.

 



From the desert to the conifers.....

 

When I left Tucson, it had been 115 degrees for more than a week.  My AC was not keeping up and my fridge was having a hard time also.  I was so glad to get out of town!  I made a beeline for higher elevation and cooler temperatures!

 

 

I ended up in northern New Mexico, which was not where I had planned to be, but plans are always written in the sand at low tide.  I ended up in a state park near a small town,  with scenery like this.

 

 

 

 

This store has amazing wool items, wall hanging rugs, blankets and all sorts of other items.  Beautiful work, which is done right on the premises.

This town might be small and older, but their church is not - it looks relatively new and is very well kept.

 

On a nearby road going out of town is a shrine built onto a rock wall.

 

 

Like quite a few places in the southwest, there are abandoned buildings, as well as old antique vehicles. 

 

 

 

 

This truck is for sale, in case anyone is in the mood for a restoration project! 

 

We had lunch at this place in a nearby town, and even in July, they warn us of snow dangers!

 

 

Desert Critters and Other Stuff.

 

I was so lucky to get this photo of an owl.  It was dusk and I had just opened the door to my RV to go outside and saw him sitting this post, just about eye level with me.  Other birds were swooping down to try to get him to leave, but he just kept ducking and turning his head to watch them.  Then, he just stared at me and I took this shot. 

 

 

Saguaros have these beautiful blooms, and after the blooms die off, the seed pods start unfolding. The dark color on the top in the photo below was the bloom, the open seed pods are below.  This is what people harvest to make jams, syrups and other food.

 

This seed pod is fully opened. 

 

 

This really isn't a desert creature, but she's interesting.  She loves to stick her nose in the ground to smell the critters in there.  She will sit there for an hour, just snorting and sniffing.  Silly girl.

 

A month (or more) ago, I took a photo of this bird sitting on her nest.  It's in a cholla cactus, and I saw her numerous times just standing on the spines of this cactus. 



 

I checked the babies every day.  First, they just looked like little piles of fluff in there.  Then they started getting bigger and started watching me.  Mama bird yelled when I went to take photos, but she never got upset with me.

There are lots of bunnies around and lots of coyotes walking around.  Never did get a good photo of a coyote because I was either driving or didn't have my camera.  I'm sure some of these little bunnies were coyote snacks.

Another strange thing in the desert, people getting close to cacti to get photos.  I was hiking one day and - oh, wait, that's me!

It has been really hot here lately.   I left a pair of Crocs out one day after using the pool.  Didn't think anything about it until the next day - they were about a size smaller! 

This sunset is red because it was so hot that day.  Not technically, but just my observation.