Desert Delights

Our desert vacation was a lot more colorful than I had expected. There were colorful wildflowers everywhere! I've never seen so many in the desert or in such large quantities and concentrations. I think it has a lot to do with all the rain we had this winter. However, I'm a bit puzzled as to how so many wildflowers are blooming at the end of June...almost July. They're everywhere and so pretty! I love wildflowers so this trip was like wildflower heaven. Here are some of the flowers we saw in Sedona, Arizona...note the red earth background in the pictures...

I've never seen so many cactus blossoms...ever! As I was taking pictures of this one, the center started to wiggle around...


Here's why...a bee had burried himself deep into the flower. Here he comes now. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the green, twisted, knot-like center...


I love the orange inside. So pretty...




Double delight...or...double shot for another bee...


This type of cactus is interesting. It grows like a train, along the ground, one paddle attached to the next...


I've never seen these before...they're yucca pods. Aren't they cool?! I found out later that native americans ate them. I read that they boiled and roasted them. They look like chile peppers...


We saw this flower stalk on our sunset hike near the vortex. There were bees of many sizes and shapes buzzing all around. You can see some of their silhouettes in the picture...


Here's one during the day. They're actually very colorful...


And, very tall...at least seven feet...


A little purple star...


And, some more with their petals curving backwards...


These were such a treat to me because of the orange color. It seems like most of the wildflowers I see are white, yellow, pink, purple and sometimes red. It seems rare to find orange ones and I'd never seen these...


These look like little paint brushes...click the picture to see it larger...they're even prettier when the picture is bigger...


This one sure has long legs. I think it was at least 18" tall...


These were growing on tall bushes near the Palatki ruins...


Sweet little blue flowers and little buds...


These are pretty but I'm not sure they're wild. We only found them growing along the roadsides...as though the road department had planted seeds for them...


These were only along the roads too, as far as I saw, but so cute...


Some have orange on them...


The tall black centers really stand out...


Fluffy...


We found these on our drive up Oak Canyon at higher elevations. They remind me of tiny pinecones...


We also found these up the canyon. They look like bright little suns...


I love photographing wildflowers and try to get pictures of every kind I come across. Unfortunately, I saw amazing flowers along roadsides that I couldn't take pictures of because there weren't places pull over. How wonderful to have seen them though.

More on our desert adventure in my next post. I hope you'll come back. :-)