Cactus Trip through the US South West

A healthier looking plant...probably due to the semi shade it's getting....

Close up of the stem. New growth or flower buds ?? We'll never really know for sure...

Some more impressive Opuntia flowers.

Probably my favorite Opuntia flower from the trip...

Worthy of a close up...

Magnificent scenery in the Navajo Bridge area....

One of the locals watching on...

On our way back we managed to squeeze in return visits to a couple of earlier stops to hopefully get the plants in flower... One was the Pediocactus paradinei site

And I was especially glad we saw the Utahia again as we did catch them in full flower...

You can find Cacti in the strangest places...this was at a water treatment plant on the outskirts of a small town...

And we were looking for Sclerocactus schlesseri and we found it! Unfortunately we were a bit early in the day for the flowers...

So as we were hurtling along a highway pretty much in the middle of nowhere we spotted some massive Echinocereus clumps on a hillside along the road. Well worth the stop....

Close up...

We were getting closer and closer to Vegas now and what would be our return leg home.. but time enough to search for another Sclerocactus outside the town of Tonapah...

It took us a while to get our "eyes in", but one we did we found that we'd probably walked past a number of these little beauties...Sclerocactus nyensis

Lovely plants....such vivid flowers...

Things were coming to an end...we'd now got to our last day in the field and what would be our last stop... We were looking for another Sclerocactus. This time Sclerocactus polyancistrus...after a bit of searching we found our first example, a nice big plant but it was a little dull.....

And we wanted something better....

Because we really wanted to go out with a BANG...and good old Sclerocactus polyancistrus was happy to oblige. Seeing these big guys in full flower was yet another highlight of a great trip !!

The Echonocereus that were here were no slouches either...intersting that the flower color on both these plants is about the same...appealing to the same pollinator perhaps ??

My favorite Sclerocatus polyancistrus photo....

Now I'd be somewhat remiss if I didn't tell a huomorous anecdote from this last stop of the trip... One of our party was off on his own, looking for plants and taking photo's when he heard this "drilling sound". Not unusual in these parts as there are mines etc operating.. But the sound seemed to be coming from very nearby, behind him in fact...and it was getting louder as he moved around. He was puzzled until he found the source of the noise...and when he did we all knew it too as we hear this massive shout """"""RATTLER!!!!!!!"""""
Right in the small bush immediately behind him, was this guy below, and he was NOT happy ! It's just like in the movies, with all the rattle sound and the hissing ! Luckily my friend hadn't stepped back and had seen it in time as we were still a long way from anywhere and I've been told since these guys are deadly.
Serious, but quite funny as well and it all added to making the last day extra memorable. !!

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this condensed diary of the trip ! It was a great trip and I must thank my travelling companions and also some of the guys from the British Society and Forum who helped us immensely with advice and localities. The trip wouldn't have been near as good without that info..

If ever you get the chance to do something like this, I say jump at it ! We had such a great time that a return trip is already in the planning for sometime next year. We'll revisit some of our favorite spots and hopefully explore some new ones !

WOW!!!

that was an awesome thread thanks Navajoa... I enjoyed every picture!!! my 3 1/2 son even bugged me to check the forum to see if there were any new posts.

I am proud to say he can even identify an ariocarpus purely from following this thread

Aye cheers Navajoa it was a really great thing to share, and very enjoyable to follow your steps. Glad to hear you had such an enjoyable time.

Thanks again
-A

Thanks for sharing it Nava