Sedona Arizona

Today I drove down to Sedona and hiked the Boynton Creek Trail. I've realized that Sedona is a place I need to explore. There are Moab-esque red sandstone formations and lush creekside areas. Sedona is also, sadly, packed with tourists. It's probably about an half hour south of Flagstaff.










The beginning of the trail is manzanita scrub desert with several interesting species including Parry's Agave (above), some species of ceanothus, canyon live oak (with mistletoe), some species of garrya, scarlet gillia, blue gramma, and this purple aster (below).



A quick botany lesson: Look closely at this picture and you'll see that this "flower" is actually hundreds of flowers stuck together. The outer flowers each have one purple petal while the inner yellow flowers have a fused tube of petals. You can see the stamens of the outer yellow flowers sticking out. This "flower" is actually a head of flowers. All members of the sunflower family (including this aster) have heads.



As I went below the desert scrub, the trail became greener and greener. There were several "sublime" moments along this trail, but when I got into the depths of the canyon it was wow: I'm in Japan.


































Friends and family, if you ever visit me, we'll take a trip down to Sedona.







I'm looking forward to it.














Also, I'm not a blog hound, but I have stumbled on a couple of blogs that are worth mentioning:

For an amusing down-to-earth account of gardening and cooking aventures, there is this video blog. Episodes are short, around 3- 10 minutes.
http://gardenfork.tv/

For an inspiring ongoing tale of living sustainably in the middle of Pasadena, check out this blog. This family walks the walk.
http://pathtofreedom.com