A Utah Mountain Flower

Mountain Flower

I took this photo of a flower that was at a rest stop high in the mountains of Utah on our journey today on our way to see Capitol Reef National Park. We’re camped about ten miles from the park tonight and will see it tomorrow.

Our next stop will be in the Salt Lake City area of Utah. After that, we will head across Nevada going toward my sister’s place in California.

The Colorado River in Grand Canyon

The Colorado River

We drove through the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park today on our way to Page/Lake Powell. We were in Williams last night and are camped here in Page tonight.

While we were stopped at the Desert Watchtower near the east entrance to the park, I took several photos of the canyon and the river below. This is a section of the river as seen from near the Watchtower. Click on the image to enlarge.

Colorful Seligman Facades Panorama

Facades Panorama

We were in Seligman, Arizona, which is a Route 66 tourist trap along the I-40 business loop that serves that community. Verna was souvenir shopping at the Roadkill Cafe while I and the pups waited in the RV. I took a couple of images of the old western mock-up next to the cafe and merged them into this panoramic image. Click on the image to enlarge.

Hurricane Newton Sunsets

Sunset 9/6/16 Sunset 9/7/16

When Hurricane Newton entered southern Arizona, it brought a lot of cloud cover to our area and a few very minor sprinkles of rain. But last evening and this evening’s sunsets were vivid red as the sun set in the west.

I took both of these images from the courtyard with my Canon EOS Rebel. Click on either image to enlarge.

Labor Day 2016

Labor Day Grilling’

Labor Day is here and with it come some cooler temperatures. It only got up to 97° here today and it was good weather for cookin’ on the grill. We enjoyed grilled beef tenderloin steaks (Filet Mignon), steamed broccoli and a baked sweet potato.

We are going to miss the summer, but here in our town, second spring has begun and will last until almost Thanksgiving. The mild Wickenburg winter weather attracts snowbirds from the arctic states from Labor Day until Memorial Day next year

Click on the image to enlarge..

Happy Six Foot Red Bird Shrub

Six Foot Red Bird Shrub

Since late spring, the eastern most of the three Red Bird of Paradise (a.k.a. Pride of Barbados) has outpaced the other two shrubs in the courtyard by quite a lot. Last year, this one was also the largest after getting a slow start, but this year, it took off right at the start to be the biggest of the three.

The big shrub looks to be about six feet tall by eight feet (or more) across. We planted some small bottle brush shrubs late last year to replace the sage bushes that didn’t do very well. At this time, the one bottle brush shrub is almost completely covered by the giant Red Bird.

The Red Birds will start to fade out this fall and we will, as usual, chop them nearly to the ground to await their return next summer. Click on the image to enlarge.