Managing Memories

For all my friends who wondered about the varied colors of globemallows, this
is the color/type seen commonly around the Northern part of Arizona.  

This butte is large.  For scale note the power-line tower in the lower right.  And I wondered later why I hadn't made an attempt to climb this thing. . . y'know, just for the view.

It was hot down at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument even as leaves
on the Ocotillo indicate that it had rained within the last two weeks.  The flowers
were a bonus.

A skeletal bush filters the sunlight at Saguaro National Park.

 Tombstone Territory presents a more sylvan side than its gunfighter
reputation.

Pretty to look at, hellish to hike.   The first 300 yds., at least, were downhill . . . all the rest was just hot rock.

A Town too Tough to Die

We ended up in Tombstone, Arizona, by default.  We had set out to follow the route described in Richard Shelton's delightful picaresque novel, Going Back to Bisbee.  South of Tuscon we somehow lost the narrative and stopped in Tombstone at the Larian Motel where we had stayed before.  Nothin' special, just a nice, clean, eat-cheap place.

Winter is the wrong time to visit Arizona.  The color is wrong.  Certain tree species are green but smaller species are a uniform buff without leaves.  The grass is uniform yellow...endless hills of buff without the juniper green.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The fauna is there, nonetheless.  A female Harrier cruises by looking for lunch.

Tombstone spreads out unimpressivly.  Buildings refaced for the tourists.

One...

Another...

A Third...

A fourth and friend.

And a big fella who brings you back to where you're coming from.  Farms, ranches, and range lands.