Arizona Pics Part II

Fountain Hills/Tonto National Forest..

There is nothing like a soft desert evening....

Love the modern house in this kind of dry and rural environment.

If economics allowed it, I would move there tomorrow.

It's almost like you can see the heat. It's a great picture how you've captured that.

:evilgrin: If you look closely you can see a real tall fountain in that picture. I never got close to it, but I'm assuming that why the city of Fountain Hills is named so!

It was to promote a subdivision way out of town at the time. Most locals viewed it as a stupid, wasteful joke. My last encounter with Fountain Hills was a conference on preserving state lands. A bunch of environmental activists from Fountain Hills were trying to get the state constitution changed so they could protect some state lands from development. A funny, smart rancher got up and told an anecdote about herding sheep down out of the mountains to the Phx valley. And pointed out that Fountain Hills didn't exist at the time and while he was in High school and college had in fact protested it's building along with the Palo Verde Nuke facility and the CAP. Back when he was just a hippie. I love that guy.

When I first saw it I was like :wtf: is a huge fountain doing in the middle of the desert? Fountain hills seems like a nice community...I found a little botanical preserve/path that I took some pictures in.

You must be way sout around Tuscon. I want to get back there sometime.

Interesting how the southern part is similar and different to that.

Upon visiting there, my mom once compared it to a martian landscape.

I have a question, though. Where are trees in the Tonto National Forrest? :)

I know how it is out west and sometimes I wish I could just pick up and go out there like I did when I drove over-the-road. But Ohio is looking green and pretty now days and I sure am glad winter is over. Let the lazy days begin.

Did you know they can grow 45 feet tall and live to be 350 years old?

But I have seen some pretty tall cacti in my time now that I think about it. Is it the saguaro cacti that only grow in one region of Arizona and nowhere else on the planet?

I know there are other cacti like them elsewhere but I'm not sure if its the same species or not.

and some of us call some of the bushes in the lower desert "trees" - ie Palo Verde Trees, Mesquite Trees, Ironwood etc. Not to mention Sycamores, Ash, Cottonwoods, and Willows in riparian areas.

edit for Tonto link: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/tonto/home.shtml

and join the 21st Century.

I lived there for three years as a kid. Beautiful state. I loved it. Mind-bogglingly full of cool, interesting historical stuff, and lovely geological formations. Some of the most beautiful desert I've ever seen.

But as long as the lily-white, racist, bigoted, dipshit rich-ass snowbirds are calling the political shots down there, I'm keeping my distance.

Arizona Dems: please take your lovely state back...

Although there are pockets of progressives around (even in Maricopa county). Too many "rich" white assholes for sure.

Where did you live when you were here?