LitaCheryl's photostream

Taken from the 8th floor balcony, these are the camels that go up and down the beach - for the tourists to get a bit of the authentic Arabian experience. I bet riding one of those in a thong bathing suit would be quite uncomfortable.

Heading south and west from St. George, I found myself in a completely alien landscape. After Gunlock, and the Shivisz Rez, there is Joshua Tree back country.

The Mormons named these odd plants "Joshua Trees" because of the way the branches seemed to reach to the sky in prayer. Joshua trees are fast growers for the desert; new seedlings may grow at an average rate of 7.6 cm (3.0 in) per year in their first ten years, then only grow about 3.8 cm (1.5 in) per year thereafter. The trunk of a Joshua tree is made of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings, making it difficult to determine the tree's age. This tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also has what has been described as a "deep and extensive" root system, with roots possibly reaching up to 11 m (36 ft) away. If it survives the rigors of the desert it can live for hundreds of years with some specimens surviving up to a thousand years. The tallest trees reach about 15 m tall. New plants can grow from seed, but in some populations, new stems grow from underground rhizomes that spread out around the Joshua tree.

The "forest" of Joshua Trees is an eerie site - they do look like supplicants to some strange sky power.

Taken during the first leg of my trip from SLC to Phoenix at the very end of May.

I had stopped at a Starbucks in Payson, about 50-odd miles south of SLC and was reading my guidebook on back-country drives in Utah. It turns out that the starting point for one of the drives (the Nebo Loop) began not far from that Starbucks, and ending at Nebo. The route (Rt. 15) was completely paved, but closed from late fall to early spring.

I found the back country markers fairly quickly, and began the climb, only to be stymied by a gate. A locked gate. I stood there like an idiot for about 10 minutes when a camper pulled up behind me. They were heading for a campsite about 5 miles up the road. We both stood there for another few minutes when a truck came rumbling down the other side.

Hurray! I though - someone's going to open the gate. No such luck - it was a Utah State Forestry Service ranger, who nearly busted a gut when I asked if I could get to Nebo on this road. Turns out that there was still 3 feet of snow on the road at the peaks.

There was nothing I could do but turn around and head back to the long, boring highway. I did stop and take this pretty shot of the Wasatch Mountains.

I was on my way to Philadelphia on Saturday, and had stopped to get coffee before hitting the road when I saw this magnificent double rainbow. I only had my iPhone, so the quality is not the best it could be. But when I looked closely at the image in PS, I saw that this was actually a triple rainbow - there's a little bit of an arc below the main one - look closely and you'll see it.