RHH's photos
Mastodon Peak
On our hike from Cottonwood Springs in Joshua Tree National Park we followed a side trail to Mastodon Peak and visited an old mine site there.
Ocotillo
Most of the Ocotillo we saw in southern California were not in bloom, but near Mastodon Peak in Joshua Tree National Park we found a few plants blooming.
California Fan Palm and Cottonwood
This photo was taken at Cottonwood Springs in Joshua Tree National Park. Cottonwood Springs is an oasis from which we began our hike that day to another oasis, Lost Palms, and to Mastodon Mountain and its mines. The hike was not in an area like this but in the desert.
Joshua Trees
The photo is of young Joshua Trees which have not yet developed the arms that make them a familiar sight in the Mojave Desert. The photo is from a hike to the location of Pine City, where we found only some Junipers and no trace of the city.
Rainbow
The last night of our stay in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, we camped in the mountains and had heavy rains and high winds with gusts to 80 miles per hour. Coming down from the mountains we stopped several times to photograph this rainbow. It was at times partially doubled as can barely be seen on the left of the photo, which was taken with my phone.
Courthouse Butte
This panorama was taken from Bell Rock and shows Courthouse Butte against a background of other peaks in the Sedona, Arizona, area.
Sweet Acacia
These are the flowers of Sweet Acacia, a shrub native to the American southwest, photographed in the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge near the Salton Sea in southern California.
Palms and Farmland
The area around the Salton Sea is all irrigated desert farmland, mile after mile of crops. This photo was taken south of the sea near the town of Westmoreland. Even the palm trees, in this case non-native, are few. The crop growing the field beyond the palm trees, if I remember, was Swiss Chard.
The Slot
This is another photo from one of our hikes in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California. The hike was only a couple of miles but took us through this narrow canyon where in places we had to turn sideways to get through and in others scramble or climb a bit.
