#pricklyheart #wildiris #iris #photo

Wild iris still unfurling in the deep forest.

#pricklyheart #flower #photo #iris #wildiris

Wild iris at about 8k feet.

They're just coming out in little groups in untrodden places: When it gets a bit warmer, a moth that flies and feeds like a hummingbird will stop by these on its rounds.

#HuangPo #PricklyHeart #snow #winter

Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people. There are some people just like mad dogs barking at everything that moves, even barking when the wind stirs among the grass and leaves.
― Huang Po

#pricklyheart #winter #HuangPo

“Here it is--right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.”
― Huang Po

#PricklyHeart #rainbow #desert

Desert rainbow...

#PricklyHeart #bees

Since I'm in the bee folder, here's another bee-drinking-from-safe-place photo...

#PricklyHeart #bees

I noticed that bees were falling into the birdbath and added small rocks so they had a secure place to drink from...

#PricklyHeart #psychology #religion

When religious belief is added to the DSM, I will have more respect for psychology as a potential hard science.

#PricklyHeart #quotes #groucho

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
--Groucho Marx

#BradshawRange #sky #sunrise
#Clouds #PricklyHeart

Cloud layers over the northern Sonoran Desert at sunrise...

Question for not-Americans who visit:
Any interest in hikes to unusual places that aren't #1 in the guidebooks?

See my photos #PricklyHeart for examples.Would involve some "strenuous" hiking and often include elevation gains but don't have to.

I was climbing to an old gold mine today and it occurred to me that other people might enjoy it.

I go places where there are no other people, no facilities, sometimes no trails.

Mostly Southwest US, AZ, NM, UT.

#BradshawRange #PricklyHeart
An inner valley int he Bradshaw range which is a substantial spine in Central Arizona...taken from the site of an abandoned gold mine o the hidden side of a ridge which is already on a dirt two-track...

#Kaibab NF #PricklyHeart

This is not a great photo, but when I visit this odd pool I often forget to take a better one.

It is hidden well in a rough place, set in a cleft of jagged and vertically-oriented volcanic rock at the edge of a cliff that appears black from any distance.

There was a severe drought in this forest for a few years, yet this pool always had water in it when I stopped by.

When I first encountered it, the water was a milky yellow, yet live things were in there.

#BLMlands #sky #BradshawRange #pricklyheart #HondaElement

Evening sky over a range east of the Bradshaw Range and Crown King, AZ, along Bumble Bee Road, with my trusty Element up there representing lodging for the night.

This is real live gold country, some places one can't take a step without putting a foot on quartz. Also bullet casings, lots of those as well. Both the gold and the casings have avid miners regularly mining them.

#packsaddle #pricklyheart

View down Packsaddle Mountain's road...

#kaibabNF #pricklyheart

The way back...

#kaibabNF #sheep #pricklyheart

What I call the "Lower Kaibab", the part at 5500', was a working ranch at one time. In some seasons sheep are found grazing in parts of it.

After the herd is trucked south for the winter, some stragglers remain, like this pair I encountered far back in the forest hills on a cold windy day.

The temp went down to 18F that night and was under 10F last night, I think about that lamb with so little wool to keep it warm.