A Photo Safari Through Madera Canyon, Arizona, After a Very Rainy Summer
Join me on a short photo safari in and around Madera Canyon, which, thanks to the rain, doesn’t look like it belongs in Arizona.
This is my first post for Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share blog link-up. Why yes, I am addicted to blog hops and photo challenges. Why do you ask?
Blog hops like this one provide an opportunity to connect with other bloggers, so we can learn about each other’s lives and support each other. This particular blog hop should give me a great way to share the random bits and pieces of my life with the kind folks who read my blog. So, dear readers, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, settle back in a comfy chair, and let me tell you about my weekend (c’mon… pretend you’re interested… just this once).
OK, back to our photo safari. We’re having an exceptionally rainy monsoon season here in Tucson, and all that rain has turned the desert green. Really green. Like grass growing under the saguaros green. It’s starting to look like Portland around here, minus the flannel and Birkenstocks. Plus cactus. The things labeled “rivers” on our maps actually have water in them. The creosote bushes that bloomed in the winter are blooming again. Apparently the poor things think it’s February. It’s all very confusing. But wonderful.
Yesterday we drove down to Madera Canyon to admire the green and enjoy the fact that it wasn’t 110F outside. The wildflowers were incredible:
So were the views–look at all that green! The Sonoran Desert doesn’t usually look like this:
And the water. So much water! Stream running high:
This is supposed to be a trail:
My Northwest-born-and-raised husband was enthralled. He kept mumbling, “water… water…,” and staring at the stream like he’d been wandering in the desert for 40 years like Moses. Note: We’ve only lived in the desert–the low desert, anyway–for 10 months, during which the man has had regular access to water. Also note: he’s been complaining since early July about all the thunderstorms. Apparently he gets nervous when water starts flowing into our kitchen. There’s just no pleasing some people.
![Bear warning sign at trailhead in Madera Canyon: "Bear Warning" followed by a closeup of a bear. Text underneath the picture reads: CAMPERS/HIKERS Bear activity in this area has been high recently. Please maintain close supervision of all children and pets to avoid any dangerous encounters. If encountered *Pick children up *Do not run *Make lots of noise *Back away slowly Please report all sightings and encounters as soon as possible. [logo and phone number for Arizona Game and Fish]](https://i0.wp.com/janetalcorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-14-14.50.17-cropped.jpg?resize=325%2C451)
We had a lovely time and even managed to avoid getting eaten by bears. We didn’t even see a bear, despite the helpful sign posted at the trailhead. I feel cheated. Thanks for the false advertising, Arizona Game and Fish.
So that was our Saturday. Today consisted of writing and rescuing a baby bird. More on the bird in another post.
Want to see some more pics from around Arizona? Head over here.
How was your weekend?
9 Comments
Natalie
The flowers are pretty and it’s great to see green scenery and water. Thank you for linking up with #weekendcoffeeshare.
Gary Wilson
Hi Janet.
Welcome to our weekend coffee fling.
My daughter finished her undergrad work at UA, so we’ve been to your fair, and normally very hot and dry city. Our visits did not put us on any hiking trails but we enjoyed a few deliberate rides about the edges of Tucson to see how the folks here live.
I’m not fond of heat, so it was too hot for me and I mostly remained trapped near some source of AC and my wife is not fond of how a desert grows – so brown rather than green. But our girl-child loved it for school and wandering with friends with what time she had between studies and such.
All that to say, I loved your photos and details of flooded trails and kitchens. . . Seriously – the kitchen?
I did my undergrad work in Kirkland, Wash. so tell your husband that there’s this guy on the coffee share blog who gets him and shares his love of lots of natural water, unless it wanders into the kitchen – I’m firmly with him on this.
This meet up has been rolling along each weekend for many years. I have my first post to it from way back in May of 2018 and sensed that I was very late in joining the party.
The group has changed some with our new host, Natalie, but it’s all good stuff with good folks to chat with each weekend.
I’d like to think that I’m one of the few “writers” of the group, but I’m not published other than via my own blogging but I do write to be read.
I try to create stories that are compelling, fun, often sarcastic and entertaining. I always try to welcome new visitors and encourage them to come back so we can enjoy the words and tales that each of us create.
Most of the current group write about their weeks and what’s happening around them.
I think you would be a great fit so, yes, you really should come back.
The essays that get the most action are posted on Friday mornings (US) so your post this week may miss those who only visit once or twice early in the weekend.
If you’d like to see or sample some of my word-weaves you can find my collections explained at this link.
https://garyawilsonstories.wordpress.com/about-my-site/
If you would like a quick tour of my “I Recall” collection, I have a page with some quick tours defined via this link.
https://garyawilsonstories.wordpress.com/home-toc-2101-short-tours-1/
But – regardless of whether you check out my stories, I hope you come back next week. We need a tad more sarcasm in my opinion to balance us out.
Welcome & Blessings.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks for the welcome! I’ll check out your site and your stories. I went to grad school at the U of Washington, so I get the love of natural water (also grew up near the California Delta and spent lots of weekend days fishing and exploring the rivers and sloughs). I’m coming to appreciate the beauty of the desert though. It’s remarkable how tough desert plants and animals are. They have to be to survive here.
Glad to hear the coffee share has been around awhile. It seems like I just get into some cool blog hop, and then it goes away. I do plan to come back, and I’m always happy to bring the sarcasm. It’s one of my super powers 🙂
Kirstin
Welcome! And your photos are amazing! I have friends who live in Tucson. Well one does now, the other moved to SC to be near her parents.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks for the welcome and the kind words!
suzanne
Welcome to Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share. Your photographs are beautiful and not at all what I had in mind for Arizona. Thanks for sharing. P.S. I wouldn’t be so disappointed about not encountering a bear!!
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! Arizona doesn’t really look like Arizona now, or at least the low desert doesn’t. People who were raised here say they’ve never seen it look so green. As for bears, they’re wonderful to see as long as you keep your distance.
joylenebutler
Your photos remind me of Mexico’s west coast. It’s particularly rainy there too. Love your pictures, Janet. Totally understand why you love photo hops.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! When I retire, maybe I’ll have time to improve my photography skills (I currently have 2 photography skills: point and shoot.)