In the middle of nowhere

There are places in Bulldog Canyon OHV area that look like they would be interesting to explore, but I haven't been there yet because they are hard to get to. There are also places I haven't explored because they look boring. I didn't want to do a lot of climbing yesterday, so I went to one of the places that looked like it would be boring. It's a large, mostly flat area. Well, flat compared to mountains. I studied the area on Google Earth and the most interesting thing I could see there was a small patch of light colored ground. I've looked into such things in the past and sometimes they turn out to be old mines, so that would be my destination. I even saved the coordinates in my PN-40 in case I had trouble finding it.

I knew there would be plenty to get pictures of out there.

As I started out, the desert smelled wonderful. It still had a little bit of that fresh creosote odor from the rain a couple of weeks ago. There was also something sweet mixed in with it. I didn't see many flowers, though. As I walked by a paloverde the sweet smell was really strong. This paloverde had a lot of parasites (similar to mistletoe) in it. The parasites were covered in flowers almost too small to see. I think that's where the sweet fragrance originated.

Paloverde full of parasites.

I came across some light patches of soil that I had seen in Google Earth. It was just different colored rock. Not too exciting. They didn't stand out as much as the one I was headed for, though.

Light colored rock.

I climbed a small hill and thought I could see my destination. It didn't look very interesting from the hill, but I had to be sure.

Looks like just another patch of light colored rock.

It turns out that it was mildly interesting. Somebody had dug a hole there and spread the light rock around, which is why it stands out in Google Earth. The hole is about 6 feet deep at its deepest part. The hole is why the center to the light patch looks dark on Google Earth.

A hole in the ground.

It isn't very deep.

I climbed some hills north of the hole to check out the view and found a Y saguaro. These are supposedly rare but I seem to find them all over the place. They aren't as rare as crested saguaros.

A Y saguaro.

I took lots of pictures of saguaros and sticks on this hike. I was trying to be selective about what I photographed, but everywhere I looked there was something pretty. It was a very enjoyable hike.

I saw tiny flowers scattered here and there, and about 5 Mexican Gold Poppies. I had read in the paper that the rain didn't fall at the right time for good spring flowers and so far that seems to be the case. Click below to see all of the pictures.

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