Desert Wildflowers: Up Close and Personal

As promised, we got out for a second hike today. This time, we walked the short "Nature Trail" at the bottom of the hill where we hiked yesterday. I wanted to go back and get some macro shots of the beautiful wildflowers blooming there. But first...slow-stitching. This is a cast-on stitch rose. We skipped the rose earlier, and now we're back to finish it off.

Those are my best cast-on stitches yet, but it's still hard for me. Sadie sat nearby for enpurragement.

Meanwhile, Smitty made friends with the hummingbird outside.

These next couple of images were taken here at our campsite. These are the desert marigolds.

This is a blooming creosote bush.

From there, we headed off to the nature trail. It's a strange juxtaposition seeing the carpets of poppies at the feet of the big saguaros.

So I'm going to try to identify these as best I can, but I'm not certain on any of them. If someone else knows something, please feel free to chime in. According to my book, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, by Jon Mark Stewart,

these next ones are known as checker fiddlenecks. They are blooming in abundance right now.

This is a type of phacelia. We saw this when we happened upon the superbloom in Death Valley a few years back.

These are California poppies. They are only growing above a certain elevation, but there are gazillions of them.

This is the desert lupine. The bees love it.

Some of the flowers in these pictures have already been identified, but they were so pretty in combination with their neighbors, and so I included them in this post.

This next one is purple mat. These flowers are about as big as a dime.

This is Mojave pincushion. The flowers are about the size of a marble.

This thorny guy is the top of a small saguaro.

This is desert chicory.

It is distinctive for the peppermint stripes on the undersides of the petals.

I believe these next ones are Arizona popcorn flower. They were growing in among the lupine, looking like baby's breath. The flowers are tiny...about the size of a glass-headed pin head.

This one is Mojave stinkweed. The flowers are eensy-weensy...about the size of the point of a needle.

I couldn't find these next ones in my book. My book is of the Mojave wildflowers, and we happen to be in the Sonora desert right now. They look for all the world like mallow to me, but I've only ever seen orange mallow. Maybe there is a pink variety too.

Here's how they look inside.

These are pretty much the same flower, only lavender in color this time.

Here's how they look inside.

So those are all the flower pictures I took this morning. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted to try again for that sunset picture with the starburst of sunlight in the left arm of the cactus. Here you go...the shot I was looking for. I like the little wisps of clouds in the background.

This morning, I took this shot of the mountain in the morning sunlight. The mountains appear black in the bright sunshine, but they take on a reddish cast at sunrise and sunset.

Looking in the other direction, I wanted you to see the small arch in the rocks on the other side.

That's all I have for you today. We're just relaxing now that we've done hikes both days. Tomorrow we'll be taking off for Parker, Arizona. It's a place to stop before reaching our next destination. We'll be there for another three nights. We'll need to take care of some "life things" while we're there. Starvation is imminent, and so we need to do some grocery shopping. Also, if I don't do some laundry soon, we'll be without clothes too.