Greetings again, prickly-plant fans! April was another active month for me — once again, I went crest-hunting every weekend of the month, so once again this will be a two-part report ...
April 5 — Carefree and North Scottsdale
On this day I met up with Kerry Wolfe and Ash Ponders, a writer and photographer respectively, who were working on a crested saguaro article for the travel web site Atlas Obscura. Pat and Phil had shown them some crested saguaros in the Tucson area, and I volunteered to show them a few near Phoenix. Our first stop was this transplanted crested saguaro in the Carefree Desert Garden:
Previous photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa400/crest444.php
I pointed out a few other crested cactuses in the Desert Garden, including this crested organ pipe:
Previous photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest50.php
On a back street in North Scottsdale, I showed them this crested saguaro that I'd discovered ten years earlier, but we found it to be in sad shape ... probably won't last long:
Photos from better days:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest143.php
Nothing wrong with the health of this big beauty in the Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve ... here professional photographer Ash does his thing:
Photos dating back to 2005:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest144.php
Lastly, we did a drive-by of this front-yard crested saguaro in North Scottsdale:
Previous photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa100/crest129.php
Here's Kerry's resulting Atlas Obscura article:
atlasobscura.com/articles/unusual-cactus-club-arizona
And some more of Ash's photos from the shoot:
dropbox.com/sh/60k9my5kmdv42qq/AADuGhD1MAh_iQwTCsZhqmO_a?dl=0
April 7 — Sonoran Desert National Monument
You may remember in my March report I had a telephoto shot of a crested saguaro that I didn't have time to hike over to. Well, on this day I returned to the area, did the hike — and here's the saguaro close up:
Other views:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa500/crest502.php
The hike back to my Jeep took me past this crest that I'd discovered last November, so I took an updated photo:
Previous photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crmaricopa400/crest494.php
The desert was still blooming like crazy, so here are some flower photos for you. Primrose:
Penstemon:
Strawberry hedgehog:
I also saw some remnants of past ranching activity:
I drove a few other backroads and did a couple more hikes looking for cresties, but it seemed like all I could find was Y-tip saguaros like this one:
Finally, late in the afternoon I spotted another crested saguaro, but it was too far away to hike to before sunset! So I settled for this telephoto shot and — again — vowed to return:
April 14 — Sonoran Desert National Monument
Only one week later, I returned to the same area to hike in to that crested saguaro. But this time I brought my daughter Kelly and my friends Rick and Pam, and we all enjoyed a nice hike to the saguaro:
Other side:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpinal600/crest672.php
The only other notable saguaro oddity we found was this 4-way Y-arm:
We had a splendid time photographing the wildflowers along the trail ... this was the best spring for wildflowers in recent memory. Strawberry hedgehog cactus:
Desert star:
Cholla cactus:
Ocotillo:
Prickly pear:
Lupine:
As we were driving out from the trailhead, somehow Rick spotted this well-camouflaged horned lizard by the side of the road:
Before heading home, we spent some time exploring the buildings of a nearby abandoned ranch ... and speculating on the story of those who made a home in this remote and lonely desert:
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2 ...
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