The rains were strong the last couple days of the trip. Our last day and night in the SE corner of AZ was characterized by heavy rains. We got rained out of a day hike in the mountains and had to settle for a Sonoran Whipsnake sighting on the flats. It was a great looking snake but alas it was too fast for pictures. The evening produced a Desert Box Turtle drinking from the road in a heavy t-storm and this Mojave Rattlesnake: Our last day in Arizona was spent in the Tucson area since we had to fly out the next morning. Rachel and I sat out a massive t-storm eating lunch under a canopy while downtown Tucson got dumped with 3.37 inches of rain in less than 2 hours. Once the rain let up we did a brief afternoon road cruise and hike (hike cut way short by a flooded wash 2/10th of a mile up the trail). That night our attempts at road cruising turned into an attempt to keep our rent a car from becoming a boat and we abandoned the road cruise for a short walk on high ground. Our farewell gift was this goregous 4 foot Sonoran Gopher Snake (a lifer)! We were stopped watching a Harris Antelope Squirrel on the road when this snake appeared onto the road right behind it! As you can see it was on the move and didn't pose for pictures, but I love the transition in color from front to back.. Off road I got some closer pictures as it moved on: Eventually the snake tired of being pursued for photos and it HISSSED very loudly and turned to face me.. I managed to catch a picture of it while its mouth was still open in a defensive hiss. What a great going away present! Here is the habitat it was found in, complete with a freshly flooded wash. It was hard to leave this rain drenched desert with the monsoon rains starting to hit bigtime and getting the snakes moving. I have no doubt we'll be back..

Thanks Gary. Hey Wayne can you post my Gila Monster pic when you get a chance? It isn't a great picture, because it got blurred a little with motion and its head isn't very visible but it is still a great "see how close I am and see that distinctive gila monster pattern and coloration" shot.

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip and glad you all enjoyed it. That's a lot to cover in 11 days! Dh and I drove across country right after we got engaged, starting in No. California. We'd both been to the Grand Canyon before, but while living in Hawaii, we met a guy who grew up in AZ. He told us about this canyon adjacent to the Grand Canyon that he and his family used to hike into - the trail ends in an Indian reservation. We decided to do it on our trip across country. I'm not sure what we were thinking...while physically fit, we weren't big hikers and it was a 10 mile hike down, it was 100+ degrees (middle of July). We camped overnight and then hiked back out the next day. I was never so happy to get back to our car with A/C! From there we were headed to Denver, so we drove up through Utah along some deserted 2-lane highways, but the scenery was spectacular. We didn't make it to Bryce or Zion, but we have vowed that once all of our kids were old enough to appreciate, we were going to do a trip like yours. We'll probably just do Sedona, Grand Canyon, and then one place up in Utah. I assume you were driving from place to place? Did you get to stop at any of the pueblos? Those were really pretty cool. I agree with you about Vegas. Once was enough for me. We stopped there too on our trip from San Fran down to AZ via L.A then San Diego (our trip was very convoluted as we were all over the map visiting friends along the way). We just had an overnight in Vegas, but did hit a casino just for fun. Totally not my thing at all. Just too much for me. It was neat to experience once, but I have no desire to head back. Did you see the Hoover Dam too? Probably not as I imagine that wasn't on your way if you were coming from Utah. If you have any specific kid-friendly info of places you stopped, please share! I'm taking note of the Pink Jeep tour! Glad you had a great time but totally understand being a little bit too much togetherness! With four kids, I get that when we are having to stay in hotel rooms for any length of time.

The white flowered shrub is Carpenteria. I've seen the dove tree at Sonoma Hort. and it is tiny - I have to wonder if it really is the original seedling as that is supposed to date from 1952 or earlier. Also something years ago - maybe a picture from their web site or a comment there - gave me the impression I was going to be greeted by a large, tetraploid-looking (hence the jumbo bracts) specimen instead of what they have now. Which as can be seen in your picture looks like a dwarfed orchard fruit tree. Presumably grafted propagules on the market here, although maintaining the early flowering habit, seem to have too much horsepower to end up being still so small after so many years. One I planted on Camano Island at most several years ago is probably already above roof height. Another, unlabeled tree that really appeared to be the same selection, in a garden near Portland looked to be as tall as or taller than the supposed original. Of course, if the production nurseries that have picked this one up are in fact grafting onto seedlings of normal habit than those may be invigorating the scions, as often happens with grafted dwarf and slow-growing conifers. When I was there Sonoma themselves had flats of planted or recently sprouted seeds from the tree there labeled something like "Sonoma dove tree seedlings". If many of those get planted around and they do not come out consistently true to type that should muddle things nicely. Same as with 'Bloodgood' maple and 'Royal Purple' smoke-bush.