Integrative Natural History of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Part 2: . . . But Then Face to Face | Arizona, USA
(Updated on May 10, 2025)
Looking northwestward. Taken along Puerto Blanco Drive, either at the Pinkley Peak picnic area, or a little south of it.
The title makes more sense if you connect it to the Part 1 header and are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:12.
This portrait-format shot, my second featuring Pinkley Peak, is one of the slides on this Ektachrome roll that turned out, by my standards at least, normally.
In this case I think I was concentrating on the magnificent Sonoran Desert plant life. Along with the relatively young and still-unbranched Saguaros (Carnegiea gigantea) in the middle ground there are a number of Ocotillos, Fouquieria splendens. Their very dark color is due to their being in full leaf. I wish they'd been in full flower, too, because in that state they are a sight to behold.
Also present, of course, are the Creosote Bushes (Larrea tridentata), whose inevitable presence is signaled by the lighter green foliage and light-gray stems. Right by the road they are fighting for lebensraum with the Ocotillos.
The modifier "ubiquitous" doesn't begin to describe the role of the Creosote Bush in Mexico and the American Southwest. A key player in all three of this continent's desert regimes—the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan—it forms slowly expanding clonal rings that are some of the oldest living creatures on Earth. For example, the famous "King Clone" in California is about 11.7 ka old.
But of course that big mass of geology in the background deserves some mention as well. As mentioned in Part 1, Pinkley Peak is of decidedly volcanic origin, and is composed of a nipplelike summit of the dark Childs Latite, with Pinkley Peak rhyolite and associated yellow tuff below it. All of that dates to early in the Miocene epoch. At that point, as Basin and Range crustal stretching and faulting took place, magma from deep underground found numerous ways to reach the surface.
Pinkley Peak stands on the eastern side of the upthrust Puerto Blanco Mountains horst block, much of which is made instead of Jurassic metamorphic rocks.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my my Integrative Natural History of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument album.
Integrative Natural History of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Part 2: . . . But Then Face to Face | Arizona, USA
(Updated on May 10, 2025)
Looking northwestward. Taken along Puerto Blanco Drive, either at the Pinkley Peak picnic area, or a little south of it.
The title makes more sense if you connect it to the Part 1 header and are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:12.
This portrait-format shot, my second featuring Pinkley Peak, is one of the slides on this Ektachrome roll that turned out, by my standards at least, normally.
In this case I think I was concentrating on the magnificent Sonoran Desert plant life. Along with the relatively young and still-unbranched Saguaros (Carnegiea gigantea) in the middle ground there are a number of Ocotillos, Fouquieria splendens. Their very dark color is due to their being in full leaf. I wish they'd been in full flower, too, because in that state they are a sight to behold.
Also present, of course, are the Creosote Bushes (Larrea tridentata), whose inevitable presence is signaled by the lighter green foliage and light-gray stems. Right by the road they are fighting for lebensraum with the Ocotillos.
The modifier "ubiquitous" doesn't begin to describe the role of the Creosote Bush in Mexico and the American Southwest. A key player in all three of this continent's desert regimes—the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan—it forms slowly expanding clonal rings that are some of the oldest living creatures on Earth. For example, the famous "King Clone" in California is about 11.7 ka old.
But of course that big mass of geology in the background deserves some mention as well. As mentioned in Part 1, Pinkley Peak is of decidedly volcanic origin, and is composed of a nipplelike summit of the dark Childs Latite, with Pinkley Peak rhyolite and associated yellow tuff below it. All of that dates to early in the Miocene epoch. At that point, as Basin and Range crustal stretching and faulting took place, magma from deep underground found numerous ways to reach the surface.
Pinkley Peak stands on the eastern side of the upthrust Puerto Blanco Mountains horst block, much of which is made instead of Jurassic metamorphic rocks.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my my Integrative Natural History of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument album.