End of Meridian road

This morning, Suzanne and I went for a hike at the end of Meridian road. It was still comfortably cool (to me, anyway). I saw lots of lizards, but none of them would hang around long enough to let me get a picture. I did get pictures of some flowers, though.

Meridian_2008_04_06

1900

That's a road, not a year. I'm not supposed to be out in the sun much yet, and it was pretty warm today, so I decided to take a drive up FS172. It had been a while since I had been there and I wanted to see if it was any cooler up at the Rogers Trough trailhead. I didn't find out, though. I was driving along 172 and passed a little side road labeled 1900. I had to see where it went. It's very narrow. You can see in the pictures that it is just wide enough for my truck. The last time I was on 172 there were ATVs everywhere. Didn't see a single one today. I guess people don't ride them as much when it's 104 outside.

In some places out there, the soil is very red. It would look just like Mars if it weren't for the plants and animal tracks in the dust.

The pictures:

1900_2007_05_13

A stroll near Canyon Lake

I went for a short hike near Canyon Lake today. It's really starting to warm up. Felt like it was about 80 out there. It was also very pretty. I took 80 pictures but none of them are very impressive. You can look at a few of them anyway, though.

The first is of a "dirt island" There are lots of places that are solid bare rock and nothing can grow on them (except lichens). Sometimes there will be a small patch of dirt held in place by resurection fern. The next is a closeup of some lichen. Some of it is black. I think it must have died.

There are a lot of rocks out there that sparkle a lot in the sunshine. I tried to get pictures of them but they just didn't turn out. The next picture is one of those attempts. You just have to see them in person. Stop by some time and I'll take you out there.

Next is a cute little cactus. Fish hook pincushion I think. If not, at least that's a fitting name.

The last picture is a barrel cactus that has fallen over. They seem to fall over a lot. I saw something at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum that said they lean to the south. Some of them lean until they fall over. This one might have been leaning to the south. It looks like it's straining to get that last root out of the ground.

Near Canyon Lake