A paper canyon ghost

The Superstition Wilderness is rumored to hold the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine. But other treasures can be more readily found here… The landscape is a harsh volcanic one, dominated primarily by lava flows and ash deposition. The rocks are mostly basalts, tuffs, and rhyolites. Narrow canyons are incised into these planes. The canyons are where…

Escape from a canyon

In red rock country, the bottom of a canyon can be a difficult place for a plant to live. Why? Here you can see the depths of Boynton Canyon, where ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and blue spruce (Picea pungens) must grow tall and straight to survive. Growing deep in a canyon restricts the hours of…