Closeup of buds and one open flower on the top of a fishhook barrel cactus. Flowers are yellow with orange stripes. Open flower has a mostly orange center.

Photos from Sabino Canyon Recreation Area (#FOTD)

Yellow flower with orange-striped petals, an unopened bud behind it, and spines in the background
Closeup of a flower on a fishhook barrel cactus along a trail in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

Hubs and I visited Sabino Canyon for the first time yesterday. We only made it about a half mile on the trail before the heat sent us scurrying (OK, plodding) back to our air-conditioned car. I hear tell there’s a lake and running water further up the trail, but we’ll see that another time, when it isn’t in the 90s and monsoon-humid.

Hot or not, it was lovely out in the desert. We’ve had tons of rain–the wettest July on record–so the desert is lush and green and smells of fresh rain and creosote. The cacti are plumped up, and we even saw tadpoles in a puddle along the trail. I didn’t bring my proper camera, so these are all snaps with an iPhone, taken in late morning so the colors aren’t as vivid as they would be early or late in the day.

The first pic is a closeup of a fishhook barrel cactus flower. Here’s the same flower but showing more of the cactus. The fishhook barrel cactus is a common sight around here. They get their name from the curves in their spines, though those are hard to see in this pic because of the angle (looking down from the top).

Barrel cactus with curved spines and a ring of yellow flowers with orange stripes. One flower is open. The rest are buds.
The top of a fishhook barrel cactus along a trail in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

Here’s a glimpse of the Sonoran Desert landscape, all greened up from a month of rain. I love this shot, because it shows so many kinds of vegetation and saguaros in so many sizes, from just a couple of feet tall to 20 feet or more. You can also see prickly pears and cholla. The trees in the background on the right are mesquite. They’re everywhere down here. And those clouds are the beginnings of the thunderheads building for the afternoon monsoon rains. This pic was taken at about 11 AM.

Desert scene. Trail on the left leading toward mountains. To the right, several kinds of desert vegetation in foreground (prickly pear cactus cholla, young saguaro, grass, unidentified shrubs). A group of saguaros in background, ranging from about 2 feet high to around 25 feet high. Above, blue sky dotted with the beginnings of thunderheads.
Sonoran Desert vegetation, Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, after a very wet July

To get a sense of what the desert looked like before the rain, see my post from last November with pics from Saguaro National Park. It’s a different place but still Sonoran Desert – and a lot less green.

The first pic in this post is my entry in Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge.

2 Comments

  • joylene

    I sympathize. I live in Nayarit and I’m pretty sure I’m melting. Trodding is right. I can’t even do that most days. I inch.

    Beautiful photos, Janet. It reminds me of many parts of Mexico. I live on the Pacific Ocean just beyond Sierra Madre range. It’s lush here because we’re in rainy season. Refreshing but extremely humid.