More of the amazing desert

We took the Ajo Mountain Loop Road today - the ranger station had provided us with a booklet with explanations for several stops along the way. Although it was a much shorter drive (21 miles compared to yesterday, it took us about 4 hours as we stopped a lot and saw a lot!

I think this is a "pincushion" cactus

The flowers were so pretty, and there were seemingly millions of bees!

The pincushion cactus was amongst creosote bushes - they are so prolific, that I realized I hadn't even provided a picture of them - they have tiny yellow flowers.

A Saguaro (sah-wah-ro) with interesting "arms" - notice how tall it is next to Dwayne! One of our friends pointed out that Saguaro know to praise God with their arms lifted high - this one must be conservative...  ;-)

This one has come to end of life and fallen over.

Even at the end of their lives, Saguaro look interesting, with their inner skeleton continuing to be around for a long time.

This is to show how large the Organ Pipe Cactus plant is also.

A view toward the east (the way we were driving)

A view back to the west. Can you tell I just learned how to use the panoramic feature on my Android camera/phone?

Another big Organ Pipe - this one had a unique growth in the middle.

From the brochure:
This organ pipe has an abnormal growth on an arm growing out of the the center of the cactus. This growth is called a "crest" and can occur in almost all plant species. A typical organ pipe cactus has growth cells on the tips of the arms. These cells grow in a circle to form our beloved columnar cactus. A crest can occur when the growth cells form a straight line instead of a circle. If you could peel back the skin and tissue of this organ pipe cactus, you would see the comparison of a normal straw-like skeleton to a mutated skeleton branching out like fingers of a hand. This beautiful phenomenon is unexplained in the scientific world. Some scientists believe that it is genetics; other believe it is a deformation due to frost; yet others think it may be caused by an imbalance in growth hormones. The truth is we don't know why this strange formation occurs.
<<< end of information from the brochure

This is the growth near the center of this particular cactus.

Isn't it beautiful?

This reminded me of Bethany Hamilton's retreat for young women with limb loss called "Beautifully Flawed". It may not be like all the others, but it is very beautiful!
http://www.friendsofbethany.com/beautifully-flawed-retreat-encouraging-young-women-with-limb-loss/

A bit further down the road, we saw an arch in the mountain.

 The description from the sign informed us:
"Weathering, not wind, formed this double arch. Daily heating and cooling and seasonal freezing repeatedly expanded and contracted these rocks, forming countless cracks of various sizes. As moisture that seeps into the cracks evaporates, solids that were previous dissolved in the water are left behind to form salt crystals. These crystals grow in the cracks and cause pieces of rock to break off flake by flake."

On the second half of the drive, we started seeing Agave.

And we also enjoyed seeing more of the blooming and leafed-out Ocotillo.

 A beautiful day!