The Boulders - a hike in the desert

Some friends with a Jeep took us to The Boulders, a large group of boulders in the middle of the desert northeast of Florence, AZ.



As you can see, the Boulders are in the Sonoran Desert, the only place you see saguaro cactus.  I stood by this one so you can see they are huge!



The tall, spindly plant with the red tops are ocotillo.   I was really surprised that more of them weren't covered in small green leaves because we had gotten a rain a few weeks before this. See how the "whale" on the right is moving in on the ocotillo?  LOL

 

Our friends had been here the third week of March when everything was bloomed out and this was a riot of colors.

 



Despite the fact that most of the plant was dead, this prickly pear pad was still blooming. 

Click to enlarge this photo so you can see just how wrinkled the far saguaro was.  There were a lot of them in this area that looked that way.  Very interesting.



Another little saguaro.

We got a little higher than this saguaro and were able to see the flower buds on the top.  Too bad it wasn't flowered out so you could see what small flowers this large cactus produces.

 

Looks like something took a bite out of this saguaro.



Then again, it looks like this saguaro needs to see a dentist.

Snake on the road between the boulders and Kelvin.



The Ray Mine, south of Superior, AZ, overtook the small town of Sonora, AZ

This mine was first worked in the 1800's but became an open-pit mine in the 1940's.  This is a huge pit.  We couldn't see the bottom from the overlook.

Two of the "little" dump trucks.  They are in the previous photo also.





We stopped at the Porter Café in Superior, AZ for a bite to eat.  The walls were covered in money... mainly $1 US bills.