Springtime in the Desert

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Denny and I were out geocaching in the campground, wandering all over the hills.  I took my camera along and took pictures of an amazing variety of wildflowers growing on the rocky terrain.  We're about two weeks too early for the cactus to bloom, which is a shame because they put out tissue paper-delicate flowers that are incredibly beautiful.


I tried to identify these flowers by looking online, but was only  partially successful.  So I'm just enjoying them for what they are, lovely spots of color in the desert.

This flower's petals change to white as it ages and they can be blown apart like the fluff on a dandelion puff.

Desert hyacinth

This flower has the appearance of a small snapdragon.

While blues and yellows are the predominate colors in the desert, this small white chicory-like flower peeked out from under some bushes.

Desert cliff rose.

Globe mallow.

Desert paintbrush.

The vivid glow of desert paintbrush.

I call this one ghost flowers because of the way the fuzzy buds seem to create a sheer, ghost-like blossom along with the brilliant purple and yellow flowers.

The breeze was blowing too strongly for me to get a good picture of these snapdragon-like flowers but I was intrigued by the multiple colors of the blossoms.

This is a close up of the same type of flower as the picture above, taken the next day in a different location.  It doesn't have the same variety of colors on the blooms, possibly because they were more shaded and were newer blossoms.


There are a few more, but that's enough for today.  Who said the desert is dry and barren?