Every Blooming Thing in the Desert

Wow...we sure had a perfect day for viewing the super bloom in Borrego Springs today. Our friends Tom and Deb came up from Vista, and the temperatures and sunshine couldn't have been more perfect. A little less wind would have been the only improvement. The internet is quite slow here, and so I don't know how far I'll get with this. If I can upload the pictures, I'll be well on my way to publishing.

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Okay...well much time passed just now. My internet connection is very iffy. I've tried the park wi-fi and the hotspot on my cell phone. They are equally slow and nail-bitingly unreliable. If I don't post for a couple of days, you'll know why. But here we go...pictures are uploaded and here's what we saw.

The pinky clusters below are Desert Sand Verbena. The yellow ones were posted in yesterday's blog,a and I've been able to identify them as Desert Dandelion. Finally, the white ones are Desert Pincushion. I recognize these from when we saw the super bloom in Death Valley a couple of years ago.

This next one is Desert Chicory.

I believe this one is called Purple Mat.

The purple one here is Phacelia, and that's our old friend the Desert Dandelion again.

We found fields and fields of the Desert Dandelion.

On the opposite side of the road from where we were standing for these pictures, there was an orange grove. The smell of orange blossoms as we stood here was positively heavenly.

These next ones were on a longer stem. I believe these are Desert Marigold.

I'm not sure about this next one. Deb sprung for the wildflower identification pamphlet, and she thought this one was White Mallow.

Also, we saw a goodly number of these caterpillars. A recent article said to enjoy the superbloom while it lasts because within a week or so, the blossoms will be devoured by voracious caterpillars. I suspect this is one of the hoards expected to take over.

Finally, this one is Desert Lupine. So pretty.

There were also a number of blooming cactus. This one is the Cholla Cactus. I'm not good with cactus identification, but I think this might be the Teddy Bear Cholla. They look as if they'd be soft to pet, but they are prickly. Keep your hands to yourself, or you'll be sorry.

The ocotillo cactus are very close to blooming. They are budded out, but the flowers haven't opened.

Here's a close-up of the ocotillo blossom.

This last one is, I believe, a Beaver Tail Cactus. I don't know this one well enough to know if this is the mature flower, or whether they have yet to open.

This area is loaded with amazing sculptures. Here are just a few. There were all kinds of animals, like camels, horses, dinosaurs, and turtles. We liked this one of a prospector and his horse.

Here's a close-up of the horse. The detail was very clever and interesting.

Here's the prospector. Check out his beard.

Finally, how about this dragon? He extended to the other side of the road.

Edited to say that I'll be linking up to:

Before taking off this morning, I started the embroidery on the next Appalacian Memories block. I always start with the quilt block, and so I'll show it to you when it's completely stitched.

 

And that was our day. I'll be back tomorrow if I can deal with the slow internet. If not, it might be a few days. We are here until Friday when we head to Death Valley for a few days. I believe we'll have better internet there, but no guarantees.