A Few More Pictures and Notes

I mentioned fillaree and the budding process of mesquite a few days ago. I finally got some pictures. Here is a look at a fillaree plant. The flowers are about 1/3" across. The little spines are the seed pods and they are softer than they appear, not thorn-like at all.

The next two shots show the mesquite before it begins to leaf out and the second when the process has barely begun. You can see the bumpy brown 'buds' that do not look a bit like they are hiding new leaves! Then they start to pop out. I'll get a picture of a full new leafing in a few more days since they are beginning to unfurl now. Like I said,  the green is sooooo pretty! I hope the color will come through fairly well.

And below I got some pictures looking up the hill toward the "A" and the slopes on both sides of that particular point. You can see just how rigged this country is! The cliffs are mostly limestone--the white and light color rock--and there are some layers and outcrops of a darker stone which I have not yet identified, perhaps schist or some other common stone. I would suspect they are both the sedimentary type, anyway, as there is little sign of volcanic activity around here to create the igneous types of stone.Boy, those geological terms have hidden away in a dark corner of my brain, almost lost!! I had to dig a bit for them.

 You can see the "A" right in the center of this one. I stopped at the edge of the area where I parked on Sunday so that is how far Ginger and I walked and climed! The white scar to the right is where part of the trail goes up--it is just bare rock, some in 'stair steps' and other parts tilted faces that are fortunately not too slick to walk on. The clouds are starting to look more like the summer ones now, not all the way there but no longer the darker more somber looking winter clouds--puffy white little sheep and marshmallows up there if you will allow my whimsey!


This second shot shows more of the darker cliffs. I need to get a closer look and determine what kind of rock they are. There were some similar around Bisbee, AZ and also the Verde Valley and some of those are rich in minerals. Since there is little sign of mining here I guess these are not but I do not know for sure. There are some homes built way up on the hills--we do  not have a lot of bad weather but I would hate to drive to and from some of them if it was the least bit icy or snowy! Yikes. Dry roads would be a challenge although I know the views would be fabulous. But I wonder how they get water. I suspect there may be some springs up in the canyons they can draw on since those canyons drain mountains 8,000-9,000 feet in elevation.