This butterfly was one of hundreds seen at the Spring Butterfly Exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. When you visit the desert in spring, you see not only cacti, but butterflies too.
Yucca and Shadows
Claret Cup Blossoms
I love the desert in spring when many of the cactus are in bloom. In spring the desert is green with life, and filled with bright flowers–white yucca, pink or yellow cholla, yellow prickly pear. And giant white blossoms on the handsome saguaro.
So different from the spring gardens in Wisconsin, and they are so beautiful in their own wonderful way.
Saguaro National Park
Yes, I admit it. I learned much of what I knew about deserts from the Road Runner and Wily E. Coyote. They both delighted me and led me astray. I now know that all deserts do not look the same. The Saharan Desert, whose characteristics I cluelessly gave to all deserts, is by no means the same as the Sonoran Desert, or the Mojave Desert, or the Chihuahuan Desert. How misguided could I be!
I spent all of yesterday roaming the western part of Saguaro National Park in the Sonoran Desert, a very small part of the park located just west of Tucson, Arizona. Tomorrow I’m going to the larger park east of Tucson. Seems I can’t get my fill of the desert, or at least this kind of desert.
Many of the cacti are in bloom. The roadrunners do not rush past me with a beep-beep, but they do rush past quickly enough that I cannot take their photograph. But they are so darn cute! I must have 500 photos of desert scenes, and another 800 of other travel destinations, and I still have a goodly amount of my trip ahead of me.
OK, I thought I’d send a bit of desert heat back home. 100 degrees yesterday. 95 today. No lie! I heard from my daughter/house sitter that she had to shovel the driveway this morning. Hee hee! Now I’m headed back to the desert for a sunset hike. It’s finally cooled off enough so I can manage that 5 mile loop I’ve had my eye on.
Blue Herons in the Desert
I saw a different kind of blue herons today. Not the live ones I saw recently in the Ozarks, but blue glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Chihuly’s exhibit will be here until the end of May. Be sure and take a look if you’re in the area, but be aware–you need reservations to get in the gardens. Chihuly’s work is that popular!




