Texas Wildflowers

We spent a couple of days at a COE campground at Hords Creek Lake in central Texas.  We were very pleased to find a wonderful display of wildflowers.  There was both a large number of flowers and a wide variety of different flowers.  Since most of these were unfamiliar to me, and I haven't had the time and energy to try to identify them, this post will just contain a lot of flower images.

Also a juvenile Bluebird

And a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 

Abiquiu, New Mexico

We spent a few days meeting some friends at a Corps of Engineers campground on Lake Abiquiu in north-central New Mexico.  While we were there, we spent part of a day visiting Ghost Ranch (made famous by Georgia O'Keefe) and nearby Echo Amphitheater.


Ghost Ranch views

Just a couple of miles up the road from Ghost Ranch, we visited a natural amphitheater named Echo Amphitheater.

Iron staining from a water pour-off at the top.

We thought these fallen blocks looked like they had been cut out.

Mesa Verde

We spent a couple of days in Cortez, Colorado, so that we could revisit Mesa Verde National Park.  We believe that it was approximately 30 years ago when we last visited this park.

Navajo Canyon

Unidentified ruin on far cliff of Navajo Canyon

Wild Crabapple

Square Tower House

Cliff Canyon

A couple of window views at Sun Temple

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Cliff Palace

Spruce Tree House

Island in the Sky and Shafer Trail

On our last full day in the Moab area, we drove out to the Grand View Point Overlook in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park.  After visiting the Overlook, we took the 4x4 Shafer Trail back down to the Colorado River.

Grand View Point

Looking down from the overlook  we could see the famous White Rim Trail that we had driven several years earlier.

Starting down the Shafer Trail, we were soon below the level of the White Rim.

There was a good variety of wildflowers along the road.

 

 

Asters

Utah Penstemon

Globemallow

The Prince's Plume seemed to favor the red rock cliffs

Hopi Blanketflower

Yucca blooming

This tiny barrel cactus was starting to put out blossoms nearly as large as itself.