Happy New Year! For the first time since 2019, we were able to visit family in Arizona for the holidays this year. (We had tickets last year, but Southwest Airlines had other plans…) The cheapest flights were into Tucson, so I got to spend a few days hiking and shooting photos in the sunny and 75° Sonoran Desert for a few days at the beginning of the trip. It was a lovely break from the cold, gray central Washington winter, and it is hard to come away from an Arizona sunset without at least a few good photos! Here are a few of my favorites:
A dense patch of teddy-bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii) cactus backlit by the setting sun in Tucson Mountain Park
Telescopes on Kitt Peak are silhouetted against an orange sky at sunset as seen from Tucson Mountain Park
Sunset over the Sonoran Desert at Tucson Mountain Park
Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) cacti and other desert plants on the flank of Picacho Peak, north of Tucson, Arizona
A crested saguaro in Saguaro National Park, Arizona. According to the park, crested saguaros “form when the cells in the growing stem begin to divide outward, rather than in the circular pattern of a normal cactus.” The cause is unknown, and only a few thousand crested saguaros have been documented.
Bright yellow fruit of the fishhook barrel cactus (Ferocactus wislizenii), Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Saguaro cactus and sun pillar, Saguaro National Park, Arizona
A saguaro cactus with several small, knobby arms. Saguaro National Park, Arizona.
The constellation Orion rises over the Rincon Mountains, a saguaro, and a cholla in Saguaro National Park, Arizona
Zach Schierl Photography 
Love your photos!
January 2, 2024 at 6:48 am
Great photos, thanks for sharing!
January 10, 2024 at 8:08 pm