10/22/07 (Monday): The fun continues! Today we explored a little piece of the Sonoran Desert. First we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This is a really neat introduction to the desert. It's mostly outdoors, part zoo, part botanical garden, part hiking trails through the desert. The Sonoran Desert is the only place in the world where Saguaro cactus grow. This desert looks like what everyone imagines a desert should look like. It's the desert of cowboys on horses and cartoon cactuses. We learned a lot from the docents and signs.
Next we went to Saguara National Park, where there's an 8-mile drive through the desert. It's gorgeous country, but I can't imagine how anyone ever managed to live here.Many of the saguaros had these holes in them. They're made by woodpeckers, but are used by many other kinds of animals. We saw a cactus wren making a nest in one of them. The holes don't hurt the cactus--it makes a kind of a callous around the hole so that it doesn't lose water.
There are 50 kinds of cactus in the Sonoran Desert, and lots of wildlife. I thought this agave looked like it was sprouting an asparagus!
This ocatillo is not a cactus. Most of them we saw didn't have any leaves at all, just thorny branches. But within 48 hours of a rain, they sprout leaves!
The Boojum cactus took its name from Lewis Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark." According to the sign, the person who discovered the cactus named it for a desert plant in that story.
These are Cholla cactus. there are several varieties of them.The Sonoran is the only desert in the world that has two rainy seasons, and yet it only gets about 12 inches of rain a year. Summer temperatures go over 100 degrees almost every day. I was surprised that the ground is not sandy; rather, it's quite rocky.
Tomorrow we head for Phoenix. We stop on the way at the Casa Grande ruins. We'll stay in the Phoenix area for several days because there's lots we want to see there, including the Grand Canyon!
7 comments:
What beautiful shots of the desert you have captured. Again, I think the blue, cloudless skies add so much to your photos. Very clever to capture the faint mountains in the background in that first photo. I will have to save a copy in my "Joyce and Wiley" folder.
The second shot of the saguaros is fascinating. The fact that woodpeckers can poke holes but not ruin the cactus is very interesting. Did you see much "wildlife" in the desert? Where would woodpeckers live in the desert? This must be at the edge of the desert maybe.
I liked the agave photo but the fourth one (the ocatillo), I wouldn't want many of them in my backyard! Even if it got leaves. Did you see any photo of what it looks like with foilage? The Boojum cactus looked to me like a pile of barbed wire!
I am surprised by the rocky ground. I guess I thought the desert was all sand, too. I am told that at certain times of the year the desert can be full of beautiful flowers blooming on the cacti.
Great photos!
There are always mountains in view somewhere. The land will look very flat, but if you turn your head a little, there they are!
The woodpeckers actually live in the holes they make in the saguaros. Apparently they also make lots of test holes that they later abandon, and other birds and animals take full advantage of them.
The ocatillo don't look like much even when they have leaves. But they are a marvel of adaptation--when it's very dry, lose the leaves, when there's a little moisture available, pop out some leaves.
What was the temperature when you were visiting the desert? Did you notice the lack of humidity?
It was in the 80's, very windy, and the dry air has both of us feeling all dried up and prunish!
The desert looks just like it does on TV...pretty boring but still fascinating that this is our country. I can't believe the woodpeckers make those holes, seems like they would get hurt. How do you find all this information out anyway? I guess maybe because it is a national park they have brochures or something?
Can't wait to see Grand Canyon...had to be one of the most amazing places I have ever gone and I was just a kid....I keep telling Chris we have to go there.
Most of the information comes from signs and brochures in the Visitor Center. I take pictures of the explanatory sign and then of the thing the sign is about. Then, when I do the blog, the sign reminds me what to say about the picture. When I forget something, I can usually find the information in the brochure or on the internet. We're looking forward to Grand Canyon, too!
I agree with Darcie, the Grand Canyon is a amazing place. Get darcie to tell you sometime about her plane flight over tha canyon.
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