The hills near Cave Creek. | Kenneth Lowe 2016
I’m visiting family in the Phoenix area for Thanksgiving, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the country. People who aren’t from here tend to think it’s a flat and featureless stretch of desert, but it’s a mountainous and majestic one in reality. There are all sorts of flora unique to the area, including the strange and mighty saguaro. These guys are probably my favorite plant in North America (the South American Samán tree, which I don’t know if that’s what it’s really called, is my Other America favorite).
“Let me tell you why you should vote libertarian!!!”
Saguaros seem as if they have deep, idiosyncratic personalities. They are outwardly prickly, but can’t hide their expressiveness. They seem as if they are trying to tell us something, but that it just takes them a century or two to say it. It would be something, to stay here for a long stretch of time and bend an ear to them.
These photos are all from my trip two years ago, but I’ll see about posting some more after my hike today.
“Everybody have enough shade?”
The old lecturing the young.
Chollas, creeching real horrorshow as they go rolling into the night in search of the old ultraviolence.
