Today Connie and I drove down to Tortilla Flats so she could see the desert. Our first stop was at Needle Vista, where there is a nice paved walking path in the desert to a viewpoint where you can see Weavers Needle, a tall rocky landform, in the distance.
It was gorgeous to walk the path today as a lot of different cacti are in bloom. The Hedgehog cacti have glorious fuscha coloured blooms. The prickly pear has yellow blossoms. We walked off the paved path to see the cacti closer. Connie got a Teddy Bear cholla cactus stuck in her shoe!
Right beside the paved path that we had already walked past another group spied a rattle snake. OMG! And here we were traipsing about in sandals and sneakers. We hadn't even seen the snake! We went back and took pictures. He was sunning himself and didn't seem at all threatened by us. He never moved or shook his rattle, but after that I was MUCH more cautious!!
We continued driving down to Tortilla Flats. We mooched around the tourist trap shops, listened to the Tortilla Flats Band and looked at the little museum artifacts.
On the way back we stopped at a way side park on Canyon Lake and ate a picnic snack lunch. The temperature on the car thermometer said 34.5C so we had to find shade. We sat at a picnic table under a roof shelter and watched some locals swim out to a rock to dive off it. I think the water is still very cold. I suspect it will warm up as the summer heat continues and increases. This was a very nice spot and I would like to kayak here next winter.
On the drive home we even saw some buds forming on a few Saguaro cacti. Hard to get a good photo, though I tried. (See the last picture in this post!)
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