We went on a totally excellent adventure, this past Sunday, to see evidence of pigment mining at Coon Creek Ruins.
The ruins are located in the Sierra Anchas Wilderness of Tonto National Forest. Spectacular scenery.
link to my video from that day is below. Too bad that YouTube’s max video length is 10 min.
I had to leave out many great scenes including an encounter with a tree limb that gave me a black eye 🙂
(By the way….sorry about the dirty windshield and lens!)
Hacienda Desierto in Tucson was our next Bed and Breakfast. Fabulous grounds but breakfast was not worth writing about. However, my friends did get to see a Javelina up close and personal, a Roadrunner taking a bath and a hummingbird in her nest right outside their door!
San Xavier del Bac Mission was our first stop today. We found out that the scaffolding was going back up in a couple of months so we were happy to have lucked into this time period. The backside still had some of the scaffolding.
Next stop…Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Tough midday light so I’m only including two critter shots.
Finally….we met my friend Jim H. who led us to one of his favorite sunset locations in Saguaro National Monument. Thanks again, Jim!
The Guest House Inn in Ajo turned out to be our favorite lodging of the week. We highly recommend it.
Historic and charming but it was breakfast that we’ll never forget! Mike is an excellent cook.
On the way out of town, we stop for a daytime shot of the Ajo Mission. I shot in infrared.
Next stop is Organ Pipe National Monument. We find that over one third has been closed down because of border crossing issues. We decide to drive the Ajo Mountain Loop and stop for a short hike. Along the way, we spot several Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus in bloom.
The most spectacular organ pipe cactus are closer to the border, unfortunately, so we didn’t see many.
Here’s a couple of infrared shots from a trail. That’s me in the second image (self timer).
(Internet access wasn’t an issue on the road…..forgetting my laptop was 🙂
Day one we head for Gila Bend. I’ve been through before but never stopped to photograph the funky hotel.
So…what’s in Gila Bend besides the hotel? There are several petroglyph sites including the area pictured below called Painted Rocks. Imagine a pile of boulders with almost every one being covered with rock art. Very cool!
Next stop is our Bed and Breakfast in Ajo. Having no clue what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to see this charming historic cottage. The owner, Mike, has run his Guest House Inn for over 20 years. More about it tomorrow.
After checking in, we hurried out to find food before the town closed down for the night.
After a scrumptious mexican meal, we photographed the town’s historic plaza and mission.
SW Arizona, photography and B&Bs…..what more could three photo girlfriends ask for! Probably no sunrise shoots. We’ve decided late light lasts so much longer 🙂
Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata) is making a great show in my yard this year. Amazing since it came up on its own.
Last week, I discovered an unusual plant poking through the ground. I’d never seen before so I looked through all my books and found that it is Desert broomrape (Orobanche cooperi). When I checked on it late yesterday, most of the plant was gone (Javelina, no doubt) but there were a couple of flowers left. It turns out to be a root parasite of nearby shrubs and I’m thinking that like Ratany, it makes itself pretty so people like me won’t pull it up. Besides, how much water could this pretty little thing take from all the Creosote and Jojoba around it 🙂
Thanks again to Steve Jones for identifying my mysterious yellow flower. It is Xanthisma gracilis aka Slender Goldenweed. I’m also including a few other specimens from yesterday.
Chris and I spent all yesterday afternoon exploring Tom’s Thumb which is the latest trail to open in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Exhausting but very exciting for me because the elevation and rocky terrain meant seeing plants I’ve only seen on the North State Trust Land. Besides all the common wildflowers seen on the lower trails, we also saw the following: Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), Wild Cucumber (Gila manroot), Desert Anemone (Anemone tuberosa), White Tidy Tips (Layia glandulosa), Lemmon’s ragwort (Senecio lemmonii), and one, as yet, unidentified yellow flower which I hope to know by the end of the day. Also seen were two types of ferns. There are probably others but two were most noticeable. One was Spiny Cliffbrake (Pellaea trucata) and, because of its texture, I’m guessing that the other is Lindheimer’s Lip Fern (Cheilanthes lindheimeri)
On our way back to the car after our hike at Rock Knob, I spotted a Graythorn loaded with fruit and because I never let a photo op go by, I stopped. (I could hear a heavy sign up ahead…probably saying “what now” 🙂 As I was getting ready to document the fruit, I spot a tiny vine with black flowers! Holy Cow! I’m incredibly lucky to know a botanist extraordinaire named Steve Jones and thanks to Steve, we now all know that this is a milkweed vine called Matelea parvifolia. I also found out that the flowers on this vine are typically green with a tinge of dark purple so seeing flowers this dark was special.
