A Walk in the Desert

Walking around in the desert.
Planning a hike with Google Earth is like playing a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, with you as the tail and the whole county as a giant donkey..

Rivers in the desert are open for business intermittently. The rest of the time they are tempting trails.

Walking along a dry wash.


Horses and wild pigs use these trails too.

In a sense the area is like a stand of virgin forest: nothing has altered it since the time of the Indians.
Although Saguaro cacti are a sort of icon of deserts, the plant itself only grows here in Tucson.  It is as localized as a California Sequoia


The Saguaro lives hundreds of years and then dies, leaving its strong wooden ribs.

Lichen do well in the desert.

The final goal of my walk was some Indian petroglyphs I had heard about.  Snake motif visible at the top.

I am in Tucson until Friday.

Comments

[Dave]

Petroglyphs
at the bend of a dry river:
sinuous lines.

[jct]

mountain man.

[Peter]

When you get away, you get away! Happy Thanksgiving.