The desert keeps blooming!

 

Linda Vista Trail, half a mile from my house.

I can't get enough of our desert wildflowers this spring! Every time I go out to hike I think surely they must be fading by now, but they're not. They've painted the land with swathes of yellow, gold, blue and purple and splashes of pink and red.

I've taken all of these pictures within the last few weeks on hikes in Catalina State Park, Saguaro National Park East, and the Linda Vista Trail by my house. They're all in the Sonoran Desert, which encompasses Tucson.

The purple flowers are on a cactus.

The feathery flower below is a pink fairy duster.

The bright red flower above grows high on the tips of the ocotillo. That's an ocotillo on the left in the picture below. It looks like green leafy sticks and the flowers grow on the tips (although this one isn't blooming yet). They can grow over 15 feet high and wide and their fiery flowers look magnificent against a brilliant blue Southwest sky.

These cute yellow blooms that look like pineapples grow in a circle on the top of the barrel cactus, below. The barrel always leans to the south.

It's a real treat to find a running stream in the desert. This one is at Catalina State Park, and I spent a long time sitting on a rock listening to the water and enjoying the shade on my last hike there. Most of Tucson's winter residents have left and spring break is over, so the crowds are gone and I had this beautiful spot to myself.

I saw the horses at Saguaro National Park and love how the clouds are piled above them. I think it could be a scene from a Western.

Have a colorful day