Deserts and Cactus in Arizona

Mom and Dad and myself have been in a very interesting area for the last few weeks. The air is dry and warm (for a change) and the plants here are very sticky. Dad calls it the desert. I think it means that all the animals have deserted it because it is no place for a smart animal to live. (Of course, many humans live here so I'm not sure what that means.)

Dad told me we are in the state of Arizona. There is a lot of sand here (that's white dirt that is very soft and can fly when the wind blows it.) It's also very hot on my feet when we walk around. (In fact so hot that my pads are hurting!) Dad says February and March is cool for the desert and we wouldn't want to be here in summer when it is much much hotter. I agree with him. My heavy coat would make it unbearable (or un-dog-able) to be here.

I decided to stay in the car at Organ Pipe Cactus Natl Monument. All those cactus hurt my skin!

Dad wanted to do some photography. I agreed to go along, but only if he would keep the windows down! We went to a place near another country called Mexico called "Pipe Organ Cactus National Monument." Dad says over 29 types of cactus grow here. Remember that cactus are the plants that give you much pain if you get near them or walk on them. They have little spears that jump out and poke you. I guess they are trying to keep humans and other animals from attacking them. They do a good job at that. I have no need or desire to get near them and I especially don't want to eat them.

Do these look like a Pipe Organ to you? Think of the sound it makes.

This is a large place with brown jagged mountains and large sandy deserts that are full of cactus. A special cactus found here is the Pipe Organ Cactus. It is called that because it looks like a big musical instrument that Dad says is called, guess.... a Pipe Organ. (I can't imagine a sound from such an instrument that is so big and ugly as this cactus. Dad says they are found in large buildings called churches where humans use them to wake up their God on Sunday mornings. Don't ask me more, I don't understand any of this.)

Doesn't this Saguaro look like he is reaching for the others? Wierd human-like cactus at Organ Pipe Cactus Natl Monument.

Another cactus that is here that Dad calls the Saguaro. It is a funny cactus because it looks like a big human with a small head or without a head. There are many of these and each one looks different. Some have two big thick arms and others have many arms like some type of scary monster. They are very tall, much taller than humans and they have those little spears that can stab you if you get too close. Dad says they live over one hundred years so that they can scare lots of generations of dogs!

Here's a Saguaro Cactus spear army!

We saw two Saguaros growing close that looked like they were hugging each other. Two arms from each growing around each other. Some have their arms reaching to the sky like they were pointing at some special stars. It was fun to poke my head out the window and see all the silly forms of this cactus. Dad says these are plants and that they can't see, think or move. I thought my life had it's boring moments, but geez.. I wouldn't want a life where you couldn't see, think or chase squirrels, that would just be too boring.

Another interesting feature of this desert is what Dad said were dry creeks. No water was in them, just lots of pebbles and sand. I guess sand flows in creeks in the desert. That's really weird. I didn't see any sand flowing or moving, but I suspect they move at night when humans can't see it move.

Mexican Poppies were the only wildflowers at this time.

There weren't many wildflowers around this time of year, but we did see a few Mexican Poppys. Dad said the colors were "popping" Yellow and Orange (whatever that means). He said in a few weeks this place would have a lot of colorful wildflowers. We won't be here then but it might be interesting to you if you come down here after me.

Picacho Peak in Arizona has a big pointy head and lots of Saguaro Cactus to see.

While we were in Arizona, Dad and I also visited a place called Picacho Peak. It was a big mountain standing alone with a very pointy head and was covered with Saguaro and other cactus. Dad says they have mesquite, Paloverde and acacia trees; Crucifixion Thorn, Ocotillo, cholla, prickly pear and of course, Saguaro Cactus. You can see the mountain very well from the highway called Interstate 10, but Dad wanted to get close so we drove to it and walked around. It's was one of those state parks that you have to pay to get in, but we got there before 8 AM and didn't have to pay (I think the human that collects the money was still sleeping). One of the cholla cactus attacked Dad and he had to pull the spears out of his shoes. Luckily I was able to avoid getting speared. It would have been a big job for Dad to pull out a lot of spears from my skin and I can't imagine how painful that would be. It's good to stay on the paths around here.

Lots of sticky cactus at Picacho Peak in Arizona.

I got pretty excited when I saw some Jack rabbits and quite a few little leaping and darting gray guys that Dad called lizards. You should see the Jack rabbits run! They leap really far and I'd probably never catch them. But, they would be quite fun to chase. Dad said I had to stay on my leash in the PARK. Oh well! Other animals he said we'd find if we stayed long enough were cottontail rabbits, Mule Deer, Javelina (big ugly pigs), Coyotes (my distant cousins), ground squirrels (fun to chase), pack rats (ugh they are yucky) and lots more types of lizards and even slithery snakes. There are lots of flitty little birds too. Mountain Lions, Bighorn Sheep and Coyotes have been observed according to a sign Dad was reading to me. Not sure I'd want to see a Mountain Lion.

This guy is flying hanging from a colorful sheet with a machine strapped to his back. Humans are so smart.

Motorized parasailing is where crazy humans strap a airplane on their back and fly dangling from a colorful sheet.

After Dad got plenty of photos of the mountain and cactus we went further into the desert and saw these humans flying. They had strange airplane propellers strapped to their backs and large sheets and when they wanted to fly they made these machines really noisy and ran real fast with them to get into the air. Dad said this was called Motorized Parasailing. They started to fly and went real high off the ground. I tried running real fast (without the machine) but couldn't get off the ground more than a few paw lengths or so when I jumped up. It looked like fun but Dad said there wasn't any machine that would fit a dog. So, Dad took a bunch of photos and talked to the guys on the ground about how it works and what it would cost to get a machine like this. He decided it was way too expensive and a little bit dangerous to be several thousand paw lengths above the ground hanging from a machine and a sheet. I agreed.

Organ Mountains in New Mexico don't look like the cactus but are named after the Pipe Organ too.

Later, when we were leaving Arizona we visited another place in the desert called New Mexico. There, we visited another Organ Pipe place. This time, the mountains were called Organs! They had tops that looked like Organ Pipes I guess. The Organ Pipe cactus and the Organ mountain looked no where near the same to me, but then dogs have more advanced eye sight and intelligence than humans so it makes sense to me that humans would get it confused.

We walked up this road towards the Organ mountains in New Mexico. My feet hurt!@

We were planning to visit an area there called Dripping Springs but a big sign said, NO PETS. It was another discriminatory sign against dogs. Some day, when I really become President, I'm going to make some of these Park signs read: NO HUMANS, DOGS ONLY! That'll show them how it feels to be kept out of places! Anyway, it was just a place with water dripping down from a cliff. Boring stuff to me, so no great loss. Dad was hoping to photograph it, but he can look at the pictures on the Internet.

Organ Mountains in New Mexico.

We are now in the middle of Texas next to a nice lake, called Bridgeport. It is a little warm here, but a nice cool breeze makes it nice for me to lay outside the motorhome in the shade, look at the water and rest from all the excitement of the desert.

Arf,

Reggie