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Earlier in May, my parents and I returned to Utah for another hiking trip. We went to Zion and Bryce National Parks back in October, so this time we visited Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks.
I love learning to identify things: animals (easy), birds (harder), trees (harder still), and wildflowers. When I worked in Algonquin Park as a student, I got tree identification guides and taught myself to name the forest trees on my days off.
We spent over a week hiking through three National Parks and spent all day hiking the various trails. I got myself a wildflower identification guide and tried my best to name the myriad wildflowers that perfumed the dry desert air. I think I’ve got it right for most of them, but there are a few that I’m not sure of. In addition to the ones I photographed here, we also saw Hopi blanket flowers, Mormon tea, silvery lupine, Eaton’s penstemon, and Harriman’s yucca. I was surprised to see so much greenery – this was a much different desert than the one in which I grew up!
[…] the delicious smell of the desert: wherever we turned, a gentle fragrant wind blew, perfumed by the desert flowers and […]