Wildflowers 2024 Bartlett Lake Reservoir

When it comes to photographing AZ wildflowers, Bartlett Lake is always a favorite. There are about 6 easy pull out spots along North Bartlett Dam Road that make it easy to safely pull over and within feet you have abundant wildflowers. The lake offers a nice background for wide angle photos.

Mid-morning along the road leading to campgrounds. Bartlett Lake is lower than I have ever seen it before.

Stork’s bill

Bugloss fiddleneck

Chuparosa

Brittlebush

Cream cup

Cryptantha

California Uncap

Gilia achileifolia

Crucifiction thorn

A spent thistle! The geometry fascinates me!

Lupinus sparsiflorus

Phacelia crenulata

California poppy

Phacelia ramosissima

Seen from the road.

Purple Owl’s Clover

Salvia columbaria

Salvia columbaria

My brother, Steve, setting up for some high speed sync macro photography.

H Barbed Wire 2 Point. Steve, like many photographers, is happy to find old barbed wire. The history of barbed wire is quite interesting. Look it up!!

On the road to the Cove Restaurant for lunch.

Looking north from the Cove restaurant at the marina.

Hmmmmm . . . . I suspect some major Tom Foolery going on here!

Flowers of Desert Botanical Garden

Spring flowers at Desert Botanical Garden come in waves. It all starts with the wildflowers and when it gets too hot for them the cactus flowers may have started to bloom. if you are lucky, and we were, the butterfly exhibit is open. You might even spot a cactus wren gathering nesting materials. These flowers are the result of multiple trips, each time bringing some new discoveries. We hope you enjoy them.

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon State Park is located where the southernmost tip of the Sierra Nevada converge with the El Paso Range on SR 14. The Natural Museum of Los Angeles provides the following description of the area. "The rocks in the Red Rock Canyon area reveals some of the 500 million-year history of this part of North America. Of greatest interest to the Natural History Museum paleontologists is a nearly mile-thick succession of fossiliferous rocks that geologists call the Dove Spring Formation. These deposits are composed of stream sediments, lake clays, lava flows, and volcanic ashes that were laid down layer by layer in an ancient valley that long ago disappeared. Pressure from successive overlying layers turned the sediments into stone. Pollen, leaves and wood from ancient plants, and the bones of ancient animals were trapped in these sediments and became the fossils we study today. Earthquake movement along a nearby earthquake fault subsequently elevated and tilted the entire area that was once a valley. As uplift slowly progressed, erosion continuously stripped away the hardened deposits. More resistant beds produced the cliffs and badlands that are today found in Red Rock Canyon."  It was quite the fun photo-adventure.  We hope you enjoy it with us.

If the thought occurs to you that standing real close to these cliffs may not be the best idea . . . At some point each one of those rocks fell down and who wants to bet when the next one heads down? 

I chose not to go so close . . . 

Notice the 'No Drone Zone' sign.  We see a lot of these now.

There are two places that are reasonably accessible (meaning short hike).  This is the start of the second stop.

It is spring in the Park and the following images are just a sampling of the flora on the floor.  These are tiny plants!