"I hear music when there's no one there ... (except this funny looking cactus)" (Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument)
"That's not a desert, it's a garden!" said a Saudi prince as he overlooked the landscape from Pinkley Peak to the Ajo Mountains in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. And I have to agree with him, as I mentioned in my last blog, the character of the desert had changed as we traveled in a southeasterly direction. There were more plants, more birds, more animals, shrubs, and more and different cacti. It was more diverse and it was, dare I say it, sort of green. Yes, green. I mean, not green like Vermont green, but when I looked out over the landscape, brown, shades of brown with an occasional rust or mustard or tan thrown in, were not, I repeat, were not the predominant color! Well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, let's just say they were not the only color. We were in the Sonoran desert. I'm embarrassed to say how old I was when I learned we had deserts in the United States. And let's just say for this blog, I'm talking about environmental/ geograph...