The Cactus Trip Diaries

Where’s Angie?

Cliff and I had been checking emails for the latest news on the wettest drought that ever hit the UK. Angie had popped ‘across the road’ – actually, the San Juan River – to take some images of the San Juan Inn & Trading Post but that was 45 minutes ago. We took a look on the landing and saw Angie taking pictures of something close tothe ground. She spotted us and wrote a large ‘C’ in the sky. Cacti!

We spent the next 90 minutes in burning sunshine on the flats across the San Juan river and photographed hundreds of Sclerocactus parviflorus with every flower colour from pure white to deep purple and petal shapes from very rounded to very pointy. (S2547) We checked the internet to confirm the species searching for ‘Sclerocactus Mexican Hat’ and even found a field reference of  AM793 – Angie! you never told us that you had been here before!

Next on the aganda was Monument Valley for a scenic photo shoot. Not the best conditions as there seemed to be a lot of water vapour inthe air. Cliff was exhausted after our earlier ‘stomp in the sun’ so decided to stay ‘at home’. We had come quite used by now to impressive rock formations but seeing these famous silhouettes still brought out the cameras for images filed under S2548.

S2549 was for images taken at the actual Mexican Hat – the rock formation of a balanced rock in the shape of a sombrero, if you have a lot of imagination. Angie posed for the shot where the hat was lined up above her head, but her head was too big.

S2550 was for shots at and around the Goosenecks State Park. We had learned that State Park admissions are not covered by the Annual Pass for National Parks, Monuments etc, so made a stop half way to the entrance and took some nice shots of the river that had cut out some impressives canyons, just in case. We also spotted another Sclerocactus parviflorus in flower – after this morning’s session, we don’t take their picture anymore unless they are in flower.  When we arrived at the scenic view that was ‘the park’, there was no gate and no-one collecting entree fees. The scenery at the view point was much nicer than our earlier spot.

That would have been it for today, if it had not been for our dinner at the Swinging Steak restaurant where Cliff and I each made a 16oz rib-eye steak disappear. Angie took care of a more modest 10 oz New York strip and took videos as the monster steaks were swinging above the BBQ.

Another great day!