RHH's photos with the keyword: prickly pear

Friday we did our last hike before returning home, a hike that took us on three trails in the Sedona, Arizona, area. We hiked a loop on the Soldier Pass, Brins Mesa and Cibola Pass trails, the photo taken on the second of the three trails. That brought our total hiking mileage to around 50 miles.

Seen and photographed while hiking the McKittrick Canyon trail in Gaudalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, this is Opuntia phaecantha, the Tulip Prickly Pear.

This Prickly Pear Cactus and Havard's Agave were photographed along the Mckittrick Canyon trail in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.

I love cacti and can never, it seems get enough photos of them when we are in the desert southwest. This is another photo of Engelmann's Prickly Pear taken in Big Bend National Park. The inset shows the Purple-tinged Prickly Pear, a plant that looks far less dangerous than this, but is actually more of a problem since it has tiny hair-like spines that are almost impossible to remove from hands and feet. My wife would never have touched this cactus but was ready to rub her hand across the other one until I warned her.

This Purple-tinged Prickly Pear looks harmless but each eye is surrounded by tiny hair-like spines that are nearly impossible to remove from one's hands. It was photographed in the Dugout Wells area of Big Bend National Park.

After spending a night at Paint Gap Hills we drove to the southeast end of Big Bend National Park and to Boquillas Canyon, stopping at Dugout Wells on the way. Dugout Wells was a small settlement in the early nineteenth century around a spring. The settlement at that time even had a schoolhouse but now only a windmill is left. The place is a good spot for bird watching and has a short interpretative trail through the Chihuahuan desert. These photos were taken at Dugout Wells and along that trail, this of Opuntia engelmannii, Engelmann's Prickly Pear.

After stopping at Sotol Overlook we went on to Burro Mesa and hiked to the base of the mesa, to a place where water pouring off the mesa has left a worn channel. These cacti were photographed on the way to Burro Mesa Pouroff. The cactus in front is a Purple-tinged Prickly-pear and the cactus in back is a Chain Cholla.

Englemann's Prickly Pear is one of three Opuntias in Big Bend National Park and the most common of the three. This one was photographed along the Laguna meadow trail.

Engelmann's Prickly Pear is very common in Big Bend National Park. This example was photographed in the Chisos Mountains along the South Rim trail.

This is Engelmann's Prickly Pear, one of the cacti we saw and photographed along the South Rim trail in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park.

These two cacti were photographed along the Laguna Meadow trail in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. The Cactus on the left is Echinocereus coccineus, the Claret Cup Cactus and the larger cactus on the right is Opuntia engelmannii, Engelmann's Prickly Pear. The insets are also of these cacti and others.

These are the fruits of Opuntia engelmannii, Engelmann's Prickly Pear, photographed in the Chisos Mountains of west Texas.

Another ubiquitous plant in Big Bend National Park, Engelmann's Prickly Pear has vicious spines but the smaller hair-like spines are actually the most troublesome if one comes into contact with this plant.

On our hike to Balanced Rock, the first day of our stay in Big Bend National Park, we saw a lot of cacti and would see a lot more. There are three species of Prickly Pear in the park and we saw two of them on this hike, one featured here and another shown in the insets.

This is Opuntia engelmannii, Engelmann's Prickly Pear, one of the cacti we saw and photographed in Big Ben National Park.

This was probably the most common cactus growing in Big Bend National Park and often growing in enormous clumps.