Saguaro National Park, AZ

Welcome to Saguaro NP!  From left to right, you see

staghorn cholla, prickly pear cactus in bloom,

a barrel cactus and a blooming fish hook barrel cactus.

A teddy bear cholla.  It looks so soft and fluffy!

But a closeup shows you all the sharp spines.

They have been known to cut through sneakers.

A tree has grown up around a saguaro cactus.

Very often birds make nests on the dividing arms

of the saguaros.

Enjoy the view!

A regal looking saguaro.

A staghorn cholla cactus in bloom.

Closeup of the staghorn cactus blossoms.

A panorama of saguaro.

Closeup of a flowering saguaro.  It is the

state flower of Arizona.

A forest of saguaros.  Adios!

Benson, AZ

Before leaving NM, we came across the Ghost

Town of Steine.

Some other spooky shot of Steine.

The prickly pear cactus is the only

thing thriving.

Good bye, Ghost Town!

Hello, AZ!

An interesting rock formation in Texas Canyon.

More of the canyon near Dragoon, AZ.

The canyon covered less than ten square miles.

White Sands National Monument, Part 2

Not sure what happened with the computer, but this

post should have been one.  Here I am trekking back

from the lookout area.

Several gypsum outcroppings in the back ground.

It sure looks like he is plowing snow instead

of sand.  This was a must with all the high winds

that were in the area for days.

An odd gypsum formation.

Bill and I had to go through background checks

and have our pictures taken before being

allowed into the missile range.  This is 30

miles south of the monument.

A very large ocotillo in bloom!

A scud buster.  Love the caption: "If it flies, it dies".

Antique missiles.

One last parting shot.

White Sands National Monument, NM

Just seven miles south of Alamogordo.

These are the largest gypsum sand dunes 

in the world.

A shot of wind patterns in the sand; similar

to waves in the ocean.

The dessert blooms even here!

Hi! I was finally able to ditch the scarf due to high

winds and wear my sun hat.

The raised areas you see are cyanobacteria.

They are like living sponges and are found

where water sometimes flows.

Enjoy the view!

I am on the left in the picture.  You can see

how high the dunes are.

Alamogordo, NM

The sky finally started to clear approaching

Alamogordo, NM.

We were both surprised to see snow on these

mountain tops.  We did run into some wet

snow crossing Capitan at 37 degrees.

Another view of the mountains.

I learned that pistachios grow on trees today!

The black lines on the ground are irrigation pipes.

A closeup of the pistachios on the tree.

Bill with the largest model of a pistachio

in the world.

Roswell, NM

Found these lovely flowers in a national

wildlife preserve in Roswell, NM.

Some more purple beauties!

Part of the lakes in the preserve.  Again, the wind

was ferocious all over!  I have been wearing the

one and only scarf I have with me for days!

In 1947 a spacecraft was reported to have crashed

near Roswell, NM.  Since then, the people around

Roswell believe that aliens are visiting earth.  Here 

is Bill playing with one of them!

Bill is trying to make a date with this female alien.

Check out the phone in this guy's left hand.

"ET, phone home!"

Artesia, NM

Leaving Odessa, TX, there were many kinds of

oil pumpers to be seen on the way to Artesia, NM.

Here is one of the oil drilling derricks

we saw along the way.  Once oil is found, the 

derrick is removed and a pumper replaces it.

I finally got a good sign of New Mexico!

The wide expanse of the NM landscape.

This was a common sight along the way.

Here you see excess natural gas being burned

off from refining oil.  The winds are quite strong.

Center court at Los Pecos Inn, Artesia, NM.

There were several beautiful bronzes

here in town.  This one celebrates the first

men who began to search for oil in NM.

"Women's Intuition"

"Partners"

The partnership these two men formed

made them very wealthy people.