This time of year if you are going to spend time in Sabino Canyon, it needs to be early in the morning. It doesn’t take long before the temperature can be in the triple digits — yes, this is Tucson, Arizona.
For a lot of us who love spending time outdoors and hiking, this time of year most of our time is spent up on Mt. Lemmon. Couple that with my trying to spend more time with Joy, except for checking the mail and an occasional meeting, I haven’t been in the canyon lately.
So, this morning after a little jog in the neighborhood, I headed over to Sabino Canyon where I went on an hour and a half hike in and effort to relieve my guilt.
We are still early in the desert monsoon season, so signs of the heat and dry air are everywhere. (Barrel cactus)
Sabino creek is dry . . .
. . . and the area above the dam looks like a beach.
Down stream from the dam rocks minis water flowing over and around them have taken on different colors.
Even so, there is still plenty of live in the canyon, here two squirrels are cooling themselves in the shade at the creek dam.
Here a busy ground squirrel checking me out before retreating into his cool den.
A late-blooming Saguaro can occasionally be found.
Desert Marigolds . . .
. . . attracting butterflies.
A gall produced by flies that inhabit creosote bushes.
An ocotillo leafed out from an early July rain.
Another ocotillo surrounded by prickly pear cactus whose fruit is beginning to turn red.
Prickly pear fruit.
Still, often under austere conditions, life goes on. (White–winged Dove)
The harshness of this land causes many to see the Sonoran desert to be a wasteland.
Those who have experienced the beauty of this amazing desert know it is not, but if left unprotected, it can become a man-made wasteland.
— kenne
Among all the geographic areas of the United States, the Southwest in general
and Arizona in particular is blessed with a panoramic beauty that almost defies description.
Only a limited number of poets, painters, and photographers
have been able to do justice to her splendor.
— Marshall Trimble, Arizona: A Panoramic History of a Frontier State, 1977
