Thursday, June 11, 2009

A Walk in the Desert

While in Arizona, Geo and I went for a desert walk along a snake path. No, not literal snakes, although we did see holes in the ground like what you find where snakes do usually live. This was a sidewalk in the shape of a snake, complete with a head and rattle. It was a giant sidewalk rattlesnake.

All along the snake were sidepaths. These were simply trails of dirt that went off in different directions along the main trail into what I will call a story centers or to a picnic table. The story centers had short stories engraved on stone surrounded by interesting steel sculptures of whatever the particular story for that area was, usually a creature of the desert... a coyote, butterflies, things like that. It was fun to sightsee and read the little tales as we walked around.

The best part though was seeing all the desert wildlife. Besides the vast array of cacti in bloom, we saw wrens, a woodpecker, chipmunks, rabbits, lizards, bees, ants, and a family of quail as we walked this little trail, reminding me that there is an abundance of life in the desert. The quail were particularly interesting because it was a male and a female with about fourteen little ones flocked together.

We explored the trail and enjoyed the artwork, especially the main large snake that made the winding path we followed. Starting at the coiled part of the rattle, as if walking along "the Yellow Brick Road, (like the movie Wizard of Oz) we ended up... on it's head.

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