Category Archives: Arizona

Boyce Thompson Arboretum: A Place for Flowers

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Arizona Photos, Wild Flowers

 

We went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum in search of cactuses in bloom. In that respect we were disappointed. Only 1 cactus in bloom. But it was a great day. When you don’t get what you want you look for something else. We found lovely wild flowers.

 

Desert Hyancinth

These are also called Bluedicks but they really aren’t blue or Dicks.

Desert Globemallow

This is one of the most common wild flowers in the Sonoran Desert and comes in many colours: orange like this one, or lavender, or white, or reddish-maroon, pink, or red. All are lovely

Desert Marigold  are often found along road sides. I like that when flowers make it easy to find them.

Lupines are also very common. I particularly like to see them mingling with yellow flowers.

Apricot Blossoms

I thought these were absolutely lovely. I hope you agree.

 

There are a number of different types of Verbena in Arizona and I am not sure what type this was. Does it matter? It was a pretty good day for flower photography as the skies were lightly overcast and wind was modest. Non-existent wind would have been better of course.

These are a mysterious (to me at least) flower that I am still trying to identify. I am not sure if it was a native wild flower or an escapee.  Tell me if you know what it is. I was smitten by its beauty.

Picacho Peak State Park: a little gem

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Arizona Photos, desert, Wild Flowers

We drove to Picacho Peak State Park where we enjoyed the wild flowers. This is small gem of a state park. It is right off highway 10 on the way to Tucson. The prominent peak, which is visible from miles away, has been a landmark for centuries. The peak was also the site of the most western conflict of the Civil War. The park includes a fine small visitor center, store, campground, picnic areas, ramadas, playgrounds, grills, and hiking trails.

I had been told that Picacho Peak State Park was likely the best place for wild flowers in our region. It might be a little past prime but should still be good. We were not disappointed. Even though one woman I met said she had been here once when the entire mountain-side was filled with flowers, we thought this was pretty good. Of course, I would love to see that.

 

First the hillside was remarkably green as a result of recent rains. Then to see flowers sprinkled in the midst of the green was wonderful. We made many stops for photos.

This little park is beautiful. The flowers were like gems on a lovely garment. Many people think the desert is dull; many people are wrong.

This mountain is across highway 10 from park. I loved it with lovely Brittlebush flowers in the foreground. The desert with wild flowers can’t be beat.

To be in you have to be out

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Rebel

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One lovely day we visited San Tan Flat Restaurant and Bar for the first time this year. This was voted “Best Country Bar in Phoenix.” This should have concerned me.  The problem with Americans is that they love what is popular. In Tucson they love the Festival of Books. It was great, but in typical American fashion they loved it to death. Huge crowds destroyed the fun for me. The long line-ups eviscerate all pleasure. It seems to me that if Americans don’t experience long line-ups they think a place must be inferior.  On the other hand, long line-ups seem to guarantee a great time.

I have never been to Disney World or Disneyland. I never took my kids. I guess I was a bad parent. But I was not interested for many reasons–one of them was the long line-ups I had heard about. Recently someone told me about someone else who had been to Disney World and only got onto 4 rides because the lines were so long.

The restaurant today was like that. Most people wanted to sit outside. It was a pretty decent day. Sitting outside meant that people stand in a long line-up just to orderfood. But inside, where those who were not part of the in crowd, sat, as weird as that sounds, there was no wait at all. To be in you had to be out. To be out you had to be in. Go figure. I am always happy to be part of the out crowd, so I sat inside. My reward was no line-up. Same food but no line. I think I made the right choice.

Just a Garden Variety Drive-by Shooting

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, guns

 

Chris and I intended to have our car obtain an oil change at Walmart but it was much too busy. We could not get in. The place was too busy as a result of the fact that at the other Walmart nearby, where we went for an oil change last year, someone was shot “multiple times.” That was how the police described it. Glad we were not there. It was  a drive-by shooting. I guess that is just a garden variety shooting around here.  Just goes to show how close we might be to violence here in Arizona. There are a lot of shootings in this country. That is a little disconcerting. Well,  I guess it was not that disconcerting. When we could not get in for an oil change we went to Starbucks for a latte and macchiato. No big deal. In After all, in Arizona shootings are no big deal.

Sky Islands

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Arizona Photos, Bio-Diversity, Birds, desert, Natural History

There are many sky islands in Arizona.  Madera Canyon was one of them. Madera Canyon is located on a sky island. We went there after the debacle of Tucson’s Festival of Books. Sky islands are  incredible mountain ranges that rose up abruptly out of the desert lowlands without  foothills.  The mountains seemed to be  emerging out of the earth as if by magic.

Later I learned more about this phenomenon.  I learned that such mountains usually had an elevation of between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. I also learned that these mountains which looked like islands in a sea of grass or sea of desert scrub actually had an abundance of wild life.  These islands include most of Arizona’s biotic communities. They are among the most bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet. They are often the meeting place between desert and forest and everything in between. It is precisely that diversity that attracts wild life, especially birds. That is why these sky islands contain well over half the bird species in all of North America.  Not just Arizona. They also contain 29 bat species, more than 3,000 species of plants, and 104 species of mammals.

 

Sky Islands are havens of biodiversity. That is really their most important feature.  When you move into these “islands” in the desert there is an astounding range of biodiversity.  As Gary Paul Nabhan said, “In fact the “sky islands” of southeastern Arizona and adjacent Sonora are now recognized by the national Union for the Conservation of Nature as one of the great centers of plant diversity north of the tropics.”

The reason for that diversity is of course the great variety of topography in the state. That produces a wonderful variety of life, both flora and fauna. As Nabhan said, “When we compare our desert with others, the contrast is striking. Overall, the Sonoran Desert has the greatest diversity of plant growth forms–architectural strategies for dealing with heat and drought–of any desert in the world.”

The Sonoran Desert is certainly not the bleak and barren place that many expect–and sky islands are the apexes of diversity.

What makes Madera Canyon so special is the creek at the bottom. It traverses  4 life zones and many habitats between the desert floor and the mountain tops.  It has become world famous for its diverse flora and fauna. According to the Friends of Madera Canyon, “the variety of climates within 10 miles is similar to that found in driving from Arizona to Canada!”

Southwestern Arizona and this canyon are spectacular places for people who love wildlife and wild plants. This area is ranked the third best birding area in the US!  It contains some 400 birds species and especially 14 of Arizona’s 15 hummingbird species. That is more hummingbirds than any where else in the United States. But today we saw none at all.

It was interesting that the more we gained in altitude the more deciduous trees appeared and the less cactuses.   I have learned that usually in Arizona the higher the altitude the higher the precipitation so the more diverse the vegetation. Trees need the added the moisture on the higher elevations. Of course, if the mountain is too high, as in the San Francisco Peaks then there are no trees at all. Just snow. Trees, like all life is finicky.  Like Goldilocks, things have to be just right.

The landscape of southern Arizona seems dry—it is dry.  But it does get rain. In fact this region gets about 11 inches (280 mm) of rain per years. This is enough rain to allow a surprising amount of vegetation to flourish. Even wild flowers abound.  That seems impossible. It looks so dry and nearly barren. But the land is not barren—far from it.

On the day we were there an enthusiastic birder showed me a photograph of an Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) one of the rarest birds in the United States. A couple of years ago my brother-in-law Harv and I went in search of it but did not find. He has seen it a few times. Me never. Darn! The birder showed me a photograph he had taken of it. I was really jealous.  Later I went in search of it. I found another birder who had found it and he told me exactly where to go, but I missed it. I am an incompetent fledgling birder.    We spent some time sitting on a bench with camera and binoculars in hand. We saw a lot of birds of different species, but surprisingly no hummingbirds. Usually in the past we saw a large variety of hummingbirds here. I was puzzled by their absence.

House Finches are interesting birds because they were released in the eastern part of North America by people who brought them from Europe in the 1940s and now they have spread over most of North America including Arizona and Manitoba.

 

Acorn Woodpeckers often drill small holes in trees in the autumn to insert their acorns. Often their “granary trees” are used over and over again and contain thousands of acorns. Aren’t birds weird?

Mexican jays have co-operative breeding where the young from previous years help the parents to raise the new young.  Nature is not just competition, sometimes it involves cooperation.

 

Reading is Sexy: The Tucson Festival of Books

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Books, civilization

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I have wanted to go to the Tucson Festival of Books for many years.  Every year they have some very interesting authors. So this was the year we decided to go.  I was unable to secure tickets in advance. This was  a mistake.  But, I figured, that should not be a problem; after all for each venue they reserved 25% of the tickets for walk in traffic. We would just walk up right? Wrong!

To begin with we were late getting off by about 30 minutes and we missed the first event called “Sizzling Suspense” and featured 3 authors. We only knew one of them. That was J.A Jance as one of the authors. Chris and I had both read at least one of her books and liked them. However when we arrived we had a very difficult time finding parking. We had been told it was Spring break so parking would be easier. Wrong! Maybe it was easier than it was regularly, but it was definitely not easy.

As we were walking in we noticed there were a lot of people here. As we walked beside some enthusiastic attendees we were assured we would have a great time. One said she came very year and loved it. We were getting exciting despite the late start.

First, we were amazed at how many outdoor booths there were. Most were related to books or reading. All kinds for all kinds of readers. Childrens’ books, University of Arizona books, nature books, mystery books, religious books,  non-fiction, etc. There were Mormons trying to give away information about tracing our ancestral roots. Maybe they wanted to convert our dead relatives. That’s what people back home say they like to do. How do you convert dead people? There were more traditional religious nuts warning us to repent. You name it there was something there for your taste. The crowds were large. There was a busker in a pedestrian underpass under  a street who played wonderful music.  The acoustics were astounding where he stood. Even cheap Mennonites tipped! This actually was the highlight of the festival for me. Now you know it did not end well. I also loved some bumper stickers: “He’s not My President.” “Reading is sexy.” ”Keep the Immigrants. Deport the Racists.”

Eventually we found parking, not that far away from the site but we missed the first event. Still no problem as we took time to review the brochure.  We took so much time that we got to it “only” about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start, but that should be enough time. Right? Wrong! The subject was “Is Democracy in Danger?” I thought that could not be very popular. Wrong once more! I went to the end of the line while Chris sat down near the entrance to the Hall. It was a very long line. I was getting doubtful about this process. About 25 feet from the entrance, after about 20 minutes of standing in line, it was announced that we would not get in. The line had been too long. It sucks to be us.

This was frustrating but we decided to get in line for the 3rd event even earlier so we could get in. This event  was called “Lets Get Real” and featured writers from the southern border. Although this was currently a very popular subject of debate, given Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the southern border, I thought there would not be big crowd for this talk. Wrong again! I was not there early enough. Many people support the wall; many do not. Same story. Just before getting to the entrance it was announced we would not get in, even though I had been in line for nearly half an hour. So the day was half over and we had got into zero events.  Needless to say I was frustrated with how this worked. I confess I even said a few bad words. I am not a very good Mennonite.  Me bad. No. Tucson Festival of Books bad.

I wanted to hear Noam Chomsky, one of my favourite political writers, and the featured speaker, who would be talking in the evening but I feared the same problem. I had been enough line-ups. I told Chris, “We are going home!” Wisely, she said, “no.”  Lets go to Madera Canyon so we get something out of our 90-minute drive to Tucson. Good thinking Chris. So we left without seeing 1 single event. We walked around, ate some food, looked at some weirdos and left.

It was not a total waste however. I figured out that there was no purpose in going to this Festival without tickets.  Had I bought them I realized I would still have to stand in a lineups, but only for a few minutes. There was a special line-up for ticket holders and provided people were not late they would get in.

The Festival  often have some very interesting authors. Here is a very partial list from years past:

2011 – Elmore Leonard

2012 – Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana

2013 – R.L. Stine

2014 – Richard Russo

2015 – Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Sam Barry, Greg Isles, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan & Scott Turow -The Rock Bottom Remainders

2016 – J.A. Jance

2017 – T.C. Boyle

2018 – Billy Collins (America’s Poet laureate)

2019–Noam Chomsky

That is a pretty impressive list.

I also realized this was an immensely popular festival. The 2010 United States Census put the population of Tucson at 520,116, while the 2015 estimated population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area was 980,263. That is similar to Winnipeg in other words. Yet this festival was huge. Many writers. Thousands of attendees. Everything free! Even parking (after we found it) was free.

What really amazed me though were the thousands of people who showed up. People of all ages. Not just intellectuals. Kids. Moms. Pops, odds and sod,  Hundreds of friendly volunteers. How could there be so many people to come to hear about books? I was stunned. Yesterday when we told a friend where we were going today he was perplexed. “Why would you do that?’ he asked. Tucson has many intelligent people that was my conclusion.  I hope to try it again when I am wiser.

Phoenix: A University Town

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, World of ideas

 

Sir Jonathan Bate

         I love to travel. Anywhere anytime is what I usually say. But southern Arizona is special for many reasons. One of the hidden pleasures of Phoenix is that it is a University town. It has a major university–Arizona State University (‘ASU’). It may be the largest public university in the US. It is certainly in the top 5. But it is not just big; it is good. It has been voted “No 1 in innovation” among American Universities.

Much more important to us however, is that they have an astonishing number of events to which the public is invited. Every week it seems we get another  notice of free events with an array of talks, conferences, films, and concerts. Fantastic speakers with diverse viewpoints usually speaking in clear jargon-free language. I know to some this will sound strange, but to me learning is fun. Particularly if there are no exams. I know I would ace them anyway!

This year we attended a wide variety of such events. First was a 3 lecture series by Professor of English literature and ecology, Sir Jonathan Bate from Oxford University. Bate is one of the few Professors of English to be knighted for his work. His book on Shakespeare has been called the best modern book written on him. And there have been thousands. His subject in the lecture series was “How the Humanities can Save the Planet.” It was very interesting and thought provoking. We particularly liked a video of Don Henley singing the Eagles song, “The Last Resort” together with amazing images. This closed the first lecture.

We attended a full day conference on polarization and civil disagreement at ASU. In other words the main topic was extremism in views and increasing partisanship and polarization in public discourse. That may sound boring to some of you. It was far from boring. We spent the day listening to speakers from the top universities around the US, including what one of the speakers referred to as the best collection of political philosophers in one room that he had ever seen.

We could have gone to the second half day but decided enough was enough. We figured that if we went for the second day we would have got so smart none of our friends would ever talk to us again. Amazingly the public is invited to attend and are welcomed when there. Many ordinary people like us were mingling with great intellectuals. And you didn’t have to be an intellectual giant to get in. All you needed was curiosity. The conference was entirely free including breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner together with wine.  I estimated something like this back home would have cost each of us about $2,500 and members of the public would not have been encouraged to attend.

ASU also encourages its professors to get involved in community outreach. As a result we heard a talk by an ASU ecologist at the local Audubon Society meeting talking on the effect of humans on birds. Again there was spirited discussion.

Finally we heard another ASU professor at a local County Park explain the fascinating 2 billion year geological history of Arizona in 60 minutes. The crowd was enthralled. He gives this talk, or a version of it, every year and the place is always packed to hear him speak on a Friday night. Go figure!

We love southern Arizona but thanks to ASU we have enjoyed being immersed in the wonderful word of ideas. This may sound hard to believe, but it was exciting. There is no better place to travel to, than the world of ideas.  I love ASU.

Snow in the Superstition Mountains

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, Arizona Photos, desert

 

I know people will have hard time believing this but we went looking for snow. I am not sure I ever did that before. Usually I try to avoid all snow. I certainly never go looking for it. That is not quite true. I snow can be beautiful. But snow is  what I was looking for. I was in search of truth and beauty and today this day that  meant snow. And we found it in the Superstition Mountains after the area experienced the worst snowstorm in 122 years.

I wanted to take some pictures of snow in the Superstition Mountains and I was not disappointed. And we were not alone. On the weekend there were people everywhere trying to photograph the snow. Everyone was an artist with their cameras. So we returned on Monday when the unlucky working people went to work.

 

We decided to go a little farther on highway 88. We wanted to go where we could not go a couple of days ago on account of huge crowds. We really wanted to go a couple of miles and head back to San Tan Valley where we wanted to go to the pool. But the beauty seduced us. It was just too beautiful to turn back.

 

We drove all the way to Tortilla Flats and ate again in the outside bar listening to the music of the Tortilla Flat Band. That is always a pleasure. I loved the high water in the stream that was overflowing the road.

Canyon Lake is always beautiful. Like virtually all lakes in Arizona this one is store bought.

On the way back I wanted to photograph a mountain with snow on it. Since there were many utility wires in the way, I had to trek into the Tonto National Forest about a quarter mile dodging jumping cholla and other nasty cactuses. When I made I was so proud, I shouted just like Nolan when he figured out how to play the music on a card we sent him: “I did it; I did it.”

The Most Important Plant in the Sonoran Desert

Arizona, desert, Plants, Wild Flowers

 

Bursage (Ambrosia deltoidea)

This is a pretty boring little bush isn’t it? Nothing special. Less than that it looks puny and unimportant. To add to the wonder, this plant is actually filled with flowers! Can’t you see them?  Well they are tiny. Tiny and green.  Little green jobs is what we call them. They are very difficult to see and hardly look like flowers at all. After all who has green flowers?

According to my hero Ranger B, this is both the most the most common and most important plant in the Sonoran Desert. But it gets no respect.  How can a commoner be so important?

To begin with, Bursage holds  the desert soil together. If it were not for Bursage there would be a lot more sand and dust in the air in Arizona. So Bursage keeps the air clean. That is very important. It would be very difficult to live here were it not for my old friend Bursage. Because of Bursage sand storms in the Sonoran desert are very rare, unlike other deserts such as the Sahara. The problem is, of course, that Bursage is disappearing. The reason of course is obvious. Life is disappearing on the desert, as it is everywhere, that humans touch. All life  that is except Homo sapiens and those organisms and creatures that can stand living with us. Things like quack grass, rats and cockroaches are doing fine. Humans make life difficult for many plants and animals. That is a pity. The Sahara desert does not have Bursage, hence it has more sand storms. I am exaggerating a bit of course. The Sonoran desert has more plants than most deserts because it has more moisture. More rain means more plants. Plants hold soil together. So it is only natural that there are less sand storms here. But of all the plants the lowly inconspicuous Bursage may be the most important of all desert plants as Ranger B claims.

Too often people have insufficient respect for Bursage. They build new residential subdivisions everywhere and kill the Bursage. That is why there are now more dust storms in Arizona now than ever before.

I must admit that as a wild flower guy I would tend to pass over such a lowly plant but that would be a big mistake. No one wants Bursage on front lawns. Too boring. Saguaros everyone accepts. No one cares about Bursage. Everyone gets rid of it. It does not have pretty flowers because it relies on wind pollination, not insects. Insects don’t come for tiny little green flowers. After all they have standards. Insects, like wild flower guys, want the big flashy flowers with bright colors or scintillating scent, or better yet, both. The flowers of Bursage are extremely small.

Bursage is also important as a nurse plant. This happens often in the Sonoran Desert. Conditions are so harsh that young plants seek the protection of old plants to give them shade from the harsh sun. For example, many Saguaro cacti start out this way. But other plants use the same survival technique. According to Ranger B, Bursage is also the best shade plant in the desert. It supports more young plants than any other plant. According to Ranger B it is not uncommon for ground temperatures in the desert to hit 160°F in the open sun. Remember temperatures are measured in the shade. Plants like humans find that tough. That can kill plants like young saguaros. Most plants in the desert need shade to get a good start. Without bursar there would be a lot less plants in the desert, including the massive Saguaro that starts out as a tiny little plant that needs a nurse–like Bursage.

Like human children, showing a startling lack of gratitude, the young plant eventually outgrows the nurse and overshadows it, stealing nutrients that the nurse could use.Often the nurse dies.  Life in the desert is harsh. Just like life in gated communities.

All guns Matter

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Arizona, guns

 

One day in Arizona, I saw 2  interesting T-shirts. The first  was emblazoned with a graphic image of an AR-15 automatic rifle and the caption: “All guns matter.” To many in America this is true, but this image was disturbing. It appropriates the line of an important social movement–Black Lives Matter–and turns it on its head. That movement was inspired to revolt against the continuous undervaluing of black lives in America especially by White Policemen who shoot them without justification at a deeply disturbing rate.

But I saw a better T-shirt too. It had a graphic of a fisherman with the caption: Fish Whisperer.  That gentle philosophy is more to my liking.