The Desert Around My Home

Copyright 1996 Daniel Moore	Copyright 1997 John Moore

The first picture was taken in Oak Creek Canyon, in Arizona, which is not actually in the desert... but it is in Arizona so I thought it fair game. The canyon is sort of like the grand canyon, except you can drive through this one! The picture was taken at the start of a major flood, when the normally dry waterfall had plenty of snowmelt in it.
The second picture is a sunset that was taken near my house. Believe it or not, there was no color enhancement done to this image, although a small area did require some copying over to overcome a processing blotch.

These are some pictures I took to show the desert around my home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The purpose is so my eastern friends can see what sort of exotic terrain and flora we have here in the Upper Sonoran Desert. You don't see the fauna because I couldn't persuade the Gila monsters, coyotes, rattlesnakes and roadrunners to come out while I had the camera ready.

Because this is the only desert in the world with two rainy seasons, it has unusually rich plant life - including the famous 30-50 feet high Saguaro Cactus.

Finally, I apologize for the quality of the photographs. First of all, I am not a very good photographer. In addition, I had to turn them into GIF's after scanning them on an HP-IICX scanner, greatly reducing both the color and spatial resolution. Finally, in some with the cloudy sky (amazingly it was cloudy all three days that I took pictures), the contrast has been cranked up or there wouldn't be much to see.

But first... a couple of 1997 sunsets that I like.

Near Lake Pleasant... this sort of sunset makes me wish I lived on the west rather than the east side of the mountain!

A view from near my home near Paradise Valley, AZ.

Mountains (89K). In the distance, Camelback Mountain, a famous Phoenix landmark, partly obscured by mist and winter storm clouds. This was taken from my back balcony. This was also when the infinity stop on my camera lense was misadjusted - hence the bad focus.

Large Saguaro Cactus (128K) with sidearms (Arizona is a Right-to-Keep-and-Bear-Arms state). Also lots of flowers. Yes folks, this IS a desert, in spite of what it looks like. Two weeks after these pictures were taken is the time of year where 105-100 degree F. temperatures are not unusual!

My Neighborhood(273K) with a saguaro cactus in the center, hazy camelback in the background - an unusually cold, cloudy and hazy May day.

Palo Verde Trees (302K) in bloom. These unusual desert trees have green bark and green thorns in addition to their green leaves and yellow flowers.

Flower Covered Hillside (214K) with small saguaro, and a rocky ridge-line.

My home (108K), with the tile roof, in the center of the picture.

A trip to Yuma yielded these two odd pictures.

last update 07/04/95 Site Map