Phoenix Botanical Garden Entrance Way

The Desert Botanical Gardens located between Phoenix and Scottsdale are the perfect primer to desert plant life for someone like me whose mouth drops open and gets wide-eyed at the sight of a mountain with saguaros dotting the terrain. By the looks of the crowd last weekend, it must be as popular with the local crowd.

Papago Mountains

This was the view as we sat eating our lunch at the Botanical Gardens cafe. I’m certain that I enjoyed the food, but I can’t quite remember what it was I ate. The scenery was absolutely too distracting.

Jumping Cholla

This cactus has an great story. Seems if you brush too near the plant, a bit will break off and “jump” onto you. It seems a clever means of dispersing the plant to other areas.