Amazing Arizona

Desert plants keeping their distance from each other

    I used to pour over every article and photograph in the Arizona Highways magazines. It seemed wonderful to live in a land of sunshine and little rain, where every road led to adventure and romance. But my attempt to find a job in Arizona ended before I got there, when I discovered that my previous contract in Washington was still in effect. Then I met and married my husband and later followed him to Alaska.

    Now, in my later years, I’ve had many opportunities to visit my “dream state” and the daughter who lives there. I’ve told about the variety and adventure to be found in Arizona in previous Sun Breaks posts. The sunshine is wonderful in late winter-early spring, although daughter and son-in-law have a somewhat jaundiced outlook on the long, hot summers when they can only go outside in the evenings or early mornings.

A plant that pricks...a fishhook barrel cactus

    Arizona is an amazing state. Although it’s true that many of the plants and animals either bite, prick, or poison you, it’s also true that they’re marvelously adapted to the environments where they live.

   It’s true that there are wide, monotonous deserts where the few plants that grow keep their distance from each other. There are also mountains and forests, canyons and dry creeks that run so full in the sudden storms, the water sweeps ahead of it everything that doesn’t get out of the way.

  Animals can be strange, like the javelinas (peccaries) with oversize heads and no necks. They can be familiar and adaptive, like the coyotes that run through back yards.  Our kids, who live near the outskirts of town, opened their front door one morning to find a rattlesnake on their stoop. Some areas are birders’ paradises. If it’s been a wet winter, the first days of spring bring sweeps of wildflowers to the rocky hillsides. Some “belly flowers” are so tiny one must get down on hands and knees to examine them.

When threatened, the chuckwalla wedges itself into a crevice

and inflates itself with air. Photo: Ed Mills

Owl family in a saquaro cactus. Photo: Ed Mills

    Arizona people are as varied as the landscape. There are 21 federally recognized native American tribes and over a quarter of the state is reservation land. Many folks trace their ancestors back to the indigenous people of Mexico and to the Spanish explorers who settled there. You can find almost any skin color or accent on the city streets. The population of Arizona swells with an influx of retirees from the colder states every winter. They bring their own homes on wheels or keep a winter home in places like Apache Junction or Yuma.

    Everywhere we go, we share the highways and the beauty spots with visitors like us, who have come to enjoy the sunny playground that is the state of Arizona. Thank you for sharing, Arizonans!

Desert Springtime

Greening desert above Tucson in the valley

Fairy dusters blooming in the desert

It’s almost mid-March. We’re inside our vacation rental here in Tucson on a lovely spring afternoon, looking out through “blackout shades”, a tinted mesh that filters out the blinding brightness of the sun and much of the heat. The desert wildflowers are popping up almost fast enough to see them grow and leafless trees are greening fast. Inside, it’s a pleasant 70 degrees. It’s supposed to be 84 outside, but the direct rays feel hot enough to cook exposed flesh. We’re here to soak up the sunshine, but this afternoon there’ll be no soaking...it’s sizzle and shrivel for anyone who doesn’t seek the shade.

A week ago, we sat by this same window watching black rain clouds chase each other across the hills. They swept the desert with downpours and dumped snow on the mountaintops. We bundled up in coats over sweaters to go out between showers, walking fast to stay warm.

Such contrasts in the desert! Delicate wildflowers bloom and go to seed in a period of days, covering the sand and gravel with a haze of green. Tall saquaros grow plump with spring rains, turning themselves into reservoirs of moisture that will nourish each cactus through a long, burning summer. Shrubs and trees put out a mist of tiny leaves that camouflage protective spines. It’s beautiful. For a while, the desert seems a friendly place.

But it’s a hard place to live for people and animals. People, too, must learn to adapt. Today, we’re adapting by staying inside until late afternoon brings cooler temperatures.