Mojave Desert Spring Wildflowers

I had the chance to check out some Mojave Desert wildflowers this week, not far outside of Las Vegas. It's the best wildflower display I've seen so far this spring. Apparently some spring thunderstorms dumped at just the right time. 

Here's a sampling of what I found while wandering around for about ten minutes. I wouldn't have minded spending a lot more time wandering--all those colors in the desert are such a wonderful show!

 Many of these beautiful yellow Desert Marigolds (Baileya multiradiata) dotted the roadsides.

We may appreciate their beauty, but many insects rely on these plants to survive. 

The globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua or coccinea) is a favorite of mine, with its orange blossoms. You don't see too many orange flowers!

 The creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) are blooming, with tiny yellow flowers contrasting with their dark green leaves. Creosote bushes grow in some of the driest and hottest regions in North America. They are an evergreen, coping with drought by having highly varnished leaf surfaces that reflect sunlight, along with resins in the epidermis that can help seal the leaves against water loss. In order to avoid being eaten, the plant produces chemicals that make it undesirable. It's one of the few members of the Caltrop Family (Zygophyllaceae).

Another favorite is the Desert Trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum), so named because the stem bulges. If you look really closely this time of year, you can find tiny yellow flowers.


The lines on my fingers give you a sense of scale of just how tiny the desert trumpet flowers are.

Another plant with tiny yellow flowers is Mojave Ephedra (Ephedra fasciculata), closely related to Mormon Tea. The plant pictured above is a male bush--the female ones have different shaped flowers. I should mention that these technically aren't even flowers, they are small cones. Maybe I shouldn't mention that, because we should just enjoy their beauty!
(By the way, I didn't realize I had a smudge on my lens until I downloaded these photos. Sigh.)

Even from the road driving along at 70 mph (which was the speed limit), I could see the bright pink of prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia sp.). I adore flowering cacti--it is such a strange juxtaposition to see the delicate flowers on the spiny pads.

I think my heart quickened every time I found another cactus blooming. I don't think I could ever get tired of them.

As I wandered over the gravelly and sandy soil, I found little glimpses of color here and there from flowers that weren't nearly as large.

One was scarlet guara (Guara coccinea) in the Evening Primrose Family (Onagraceae). This perennial herb can grow up to 3 feet tall and has a mix of white and red flowers on a narrow raceme.

Mojave Yucca (aka Spanish Dagger; Yucca shidigera) played a center stage out on the desert floor, with two-foot tall inflorescences extending from a rosette of dagger-sharp leaves.

The flowers can be 1 to 2 inches across. Mojave yucca is the most common yucca found in the North American deserts. California Indians gathered and roasted the fruits and used the fibers extracted from the leaves for making blankets, baskets, and ropes.

I had to also stop for another member of the Lily Family:

The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia). These are also blooming right now. I love these trees and their strange shapes;  seeing the flower clusters, plus some late afternoon sun on them with storm clouds brewing in the background made we wish I could hang out for hours. I'm afraid my photos didn't do them justice--oh well, I now have a good excuse to return!

Joshua trees are pretty much limited to the Mojave Desert (see little map in the sidebar and click on it to learn more about the four deserts in North America). Birds, rodents, lizards, and other animals all use these trees for a variety of purposes, including shade, food, and shelter.

Kudos to Ronald J. Taylor and his book Desert Wildflowers of North America, which helped greatly with this post.

Now go out and enjoy some spring wildflowers, where ever you are (and if you're south of the equator reading this, consider it an invitation to come visit!)

A Little Rock Climbing

 We happen to live less than an hour away from a world-class climbing destination, Ibex. On Sunday, we decided to make a trip out there. I dusted off my climbing gear. Back when I was in grad school, I climbed three days a week in the climbing gym and occasionally outside, but due to a long hiatus, I was feeling rusty. Very rusty. We had the book Utah's West Desert, which is an awesome guide to rock climbing, and which had inspired me. I found a route that was for kids. It was also a sport route, which I needed, as I don't have trad gear.

For those not familiar with rock climbing, sport climbing means you clip into bolts already placed into the rock, and you need less gear: rope, quickdraws (carabiners connected to a short piece of webbing), harness, and ATC. Trad (traditional) climbing has no anchors, so you have to have an assortment of nuts, camalots, and other gear that gets pricey fast, but lets you climb about anywhere.

We weren't entirely sure we had reached the climbing place we were searching for, because instead of two bolts we found a whole array of bolts. It was obvious this area is developing and people are putting up new routes. I decided we would play it extra safe and top rope. I scrambled up to the anchors at the top of the climb, threaded the rope through, and sent it down below. With top roping, as long as your belayer is awake, you won't fall more than a couple inches. Perfect for us novices. I climbed first and decided we definitely weren't on the easy rock the book described. I struggled a little, but eventually made it to the top.

Then it was time for Desert Boy to climb. He did a good job climbing, but said he felt a little scared.

When he got down, Desert Girl couldn't wait to give it a try. She did quite well, but wasn't too comfortable coming back down.

Even though it was a cool spring day, it felt hot on the rocks. I climbed again, then we packed up. I wandered down the cliffs to see what some other climbers were doing.

The rock looked beautiful!

I was happy to see some colorful milkvetch (Astragalus) blooming.

A rock wren hopped along the cliff, following me and serenading me.

This yellow member of the Carrot Family (Apiaceae) also lent some color to the desert floor.

It was a busy day at Ibex, with about ten other people there.

We were hungry and hot, so we went to the shade of the Red Monster (seriously, that's the name of the huge boulder!) and set up for a picnic lunch.

While the soup was warming, the kids and I some time to do a little bouldering. We all loved that.

Desert Girl conquers the boulder!

After lunch we felt reenergized and headed off for some more desert adventures, although not quite as fast as the pronghorn who ran in front of us on the hardpan.

I loved the feeling of climbing again, and we will be back to Ibex soon. Hopefully we will have better luck finding some really easy routes for the kids to help them build their confidence and skills.

Desert Destination: Lunar Crater

Ready to get away from it all? Really away? Take US Highway 6 out to the middle of Nevada and you will find the Black Rock Lava Flow and Lunar Crater. The nearest hotel or restaurant is well over an hour away, but feels even farther. I had visited the Black Rock Lava Flow in 2009, and wrote this very nice post.

The lava flowed out of vents and covered over 1900 acres. That's a lot of land!

The kids were eager to get out of the truck and stretch their legs. They scrambled easily up onto the lava.  I got the kids to pose for a photo. They think it's fun to make silly poses. (Note Desert Girl's shoes--I will explain them soon.)

I enjoyed seeing the lava flow with the backdrop of the cinder cones. This Lunar Crater area covers about 100 square miles and includes more than 20 extinct volcanoes and 35 lava flows. You can read more about the geology on this USGS page.

I saw this cave and wanted to go there, but it was a little too far and the kids had declared no hiking for them. Instead they were making a pile of lava rocks and calling it a shelter. They were happy, I was happy, and I did get to wander around a bit. Then it was time to go see the main attraction.

But, first, a brief interlude as we watch a dust devil. Perhaps that's why so much soil is interspersed with the lava.

I had passed this sign a few times over the last ten years and always told myself, Someday I really am going to go see that lunar crater. And today was that day! I was very excited.

The scenery was otherworldly, with cinder cones and lava lumps all over. The road turned out to be only 7 miles long and it was in much better shape than the one-mile long road to the lava flow.

Not to my surprise, we were the only ones at the parking area. Adjacent was a sign and the crater itself. The crater is a maar, a shallow crater formed by the heating of underground water until it boils up and explodes. Two of them exist in this volcanic area.

This crater is called Lunar Crater because in the 1960s NASA brought astronauts out to train in this area.

Desert Boy took off down into the crater before I could say anything. Desert Girl and I trailed after. Desert Girl had been reading a book from the library that we had picked up just a couple hours previous that featured a little girl in a dress and fancy shoes. Desert Girl had her fancy Mary Jane's on, and she quickly learned they were not a good choice.

So we were a little slow, but that let me take photos of the 430 ft deep crater that's about 4,000 ft across. Impressive!


She did smile for a photo.

Eventually I managed to yell at Desert Boy to stop, but he was already half-way down in the crater. I would have loved to have gone all the way down, but I was concerned that it might take us a long time to get back up, and I didn't want to carry Desert Girl. So we will have to return another day to go to the very bottom and explore some of the other nearby craters. Here's the BLM website for the area.

Isn't this curved basalt awesome?

Lunar Crater became a National Natural Landmark in 1973. I'm glad it has some extra recognition, it deserves it!

Moab Trip Day 1--Little Wild Horse Canyon

On our way out of Goblin Valley State Park, we stopped at the visitor center, which doubles as the entrance station. They had some nice exhibits. I also asked the ranger about Little Wild Horse canyon. The information I had found on the Internet said it was the most-visited canyon on the San Rafael Swell, and a beautiful hike, but I wanted confirmation on how to get there. The ranger pulled out a slick brochure with good instructions, and off we went.

We turned at a signed post and drove about five miles on a good paved road. I think they recently paved the road, because a couple of other instructions mentioned it being gravel. The pavement ended at the signed parking lot. We got our things ready and headed up the trail. In about ten minutes we reached a canyon junction, with a sign.

Bell Canyon and Little Wild Horse Canyon are two canyons next to each other, and they can be hiked as an eight-mile long loop. We knew that was a little too much for us, so we headed up to Little Wild Horse Canyon to reach the narrows, which begin about half a mile up the canyon. Here's the start of the canyon:

Desert Girl wasn't walking at the beginning because she was in a Terrible Twos moment. But as we went farther up the canyon, she begged to be let down.

It kept getting better and better.

Soon it started getting narrow. We let Desert Girl down.

She liked touching the walls.

I asked Desert Boy to smile for the camera. This is what he gave me.

We continued enjoying ourselves as we wound our way though the slot canyon. It was beautiful and tranquil, yet we couldn't help but hurry a little to discover what was around the next corner.

Eventually we got to the end of the narrows, and the canyon opened up. We decided that would be a good turnaround, as it was getting late in the afternoon and we still had to drive to Moab that night.
Before we began our hike back down, I convinced everyone to pose for a photo.

We're all looking in the right direction--hurray!!

Then the race was on. The kids love to run downhill, especially in sand. We had to jog a little to keep up.

Taking photos in a dimly-lit slot canyon is already enough of a challenge--but throw in running kids, and it makes it, well, a little blurry!

By the way, my husband picked out Desert Girl's outfit and color combo. She was comfortable! And she kept on running.

She was asking if she could do the Kids Fun Run the next day with Desert Boy, and after I saw how far she ran, I thought my answer would be yes.

This really is a gorgeous hike (or jog). We saw a couple other people on the trail before we went into Little Wild Horse Canyon, but no one else. During the summer they say the parking lot fills up and people have to park down the road. You'd have to pack a lot of water in the hot months, but we were fine with just a couple water bottles.

Desert Boy was fascinated with the dry mud, and started looking all over for it and picking it up whenever he found it.

I asked the kids to pose for a photo, but my favorite shot was of them doing a high five.

The canyon obviously gets some flash floods. We found debris well over Desert Boy's head and talked to him about what to do if you're in a flash flood. Even more importantly, we talked about in what kind of weather you don't go into narrow canyons.

Desert Girl got Daddy to give her a ride out the last bit.

We would definitely like to go back, maybe to do the whole loop.