Our friend Kathy Stingley of Homer, AK was visiting so we took her for a drive west through the Black Range and then south to the City of Rocks State Park.
As you approach, it looks like a city rising up out of the desert flats.
These huge, sculpted blocks of rock have eroded into wierd shapes.
Some of them have holes in them, eroded by wind-blown sand is my guess.
There are wonderful cracks and crannies to crawl through and explore.
Nobody placed that boulder. How did it end up balanced up there?
Little caves abound. This five acre or so patch of rocks must have been magic to the natives who traveled this region.
While we were there, a dust storm came up to the south. That haze you see is blowing sand. To the west there was a thunder storm and huge, jagged streaks of lightning.
Kathy and Annie resting on a path near the cactus garden.
Don't know if you can tell from the photo, but in the middle is a chute that looks like a water-slide.
It's like a giant's playground.
The rocks look so organic, like ancient stromatolites from an ancient ocean.
The mountains in the distance beyond the rocks.
Some of the octtillo cactus had received enough moisture to leave out...others were just spiney stalks waiting to stick the unwary passer-by.
Kathy relaxing in a natural bowl. (Like the true gentleman I am, I deleted the picture of her climbing up to her perch)
There's a nearby sign warning of falling rocks.
If the two boulders on the left should shift just slightly, it would squash you like a bug.
Speaking of Bugs, here's a little desert bug-eater.
And here's a big lizard-eater. This is the first time I've seen a Road Runner standing still. Usually they are (who would have guessed it) running along the road. This one posed for quite a while.
Another exposure. They are related to cuckoos, and no, I've never heard him go "Beep-Beep." I did find a pile of coyote scat on the trail, but it was full of hair, not feathers. No Acme products were used in the filming of this bird.
