What I did on my vacation

My wife and I drove my little red car 4,476 miles, slept in 13 different hotels, visited 6 National Parks, and stopped at numerous monuments, dams, historical sites and various roadside attractions. And along the way snapped 448 photographs. Many of which look like this; 

 

 

 

And some looked like this;

 

 

 

But, being a gardener, my long suffering wife had to put up with me taking lots of photos like this;

 This being a photo of a Prickly Pear cactus with pink fruit on it. That’s Opuntia phaeacantha for those who want to know. There is another species; Opuntia polycantha that is smaller and has less edible pads. Frankly, I can’t tell the difference. The Native Americans ate the pads and the fruit, after removing the spines and then used the spines for sewing needles.

 

 

Or this, a Utah Juniper, Juniperas osteosperma, flower.  This one stopped me in my tracks, I’ve never seen a juniper flower with such marvelous feathery structures. My wife had to litterally drag me away from this plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll close with a photo of a mystery plant. I truly do not know what this is, a fungus growth on a Utah Juniper is my best guess. Whatever it is it’s really creepy. This was found at Mesa Verde National Park.

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