Mother nature as the landscaper

Sometimes I forget how amazing natural “landscapes” can be. All it takes to remind me is a road trip into the mountains or the desert .  While all of these scenes remain so striking in my memory, they unfortunately don’t unfold from my camera as vividly. My photography skills are not up to snuff. So many descriptions are coming out of my head and the pictures may not match the picture in my mind.

Mother nature plays with color and contrast beautifully.

Claret Cup Cactus, Moab Rim trail

Bright blue Penstemon, Great Basin National Park

Princes' Plume, Portal, Colrado River off Moab Rim trail

Mother nature doesn’t even worry about how a combo will look with the edges blurred. She combines this Juniper and buffalo berry for an interesting silver and green contrast.

Cathedral Valley, Silver Buffalo Berry and Juniper

I really enjoyed this wild rose dancing with a pinon pine. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture the full effect, but I remember thinking it was lovely.

Great Basin National Park campground

Rocks placement is another area that we gardeners wanting to mimic nature can have trouble with. I love the way she put these in place among these sages and colorful spring wildflowers. They seem to light up the scene.

Flat Pass trail near Moab, Utah

These rocks probably provide these wildflowers with an extra hospitable spot to get established in the harsh great basin.

Wildflowers and rock, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

On the Barrel Roll trail (so named for all the barrel cactus) in the Santa Clara River Preserve, examples abound for rocks and vegetation existing together harmoniously.

Small barrel cactus, Santa Clara River Preserve, near St. George, Utah

At the edge of this desert wash in the Santa clara river preserve, this snakeweed casts shadows on these textured rocks.

The afternoon sun shining on the golden vegetation of late winter complements these towers in the Cathedral Valley section of Capitol Reef National Park.

Mother nature is also not the least bit afraid to incorporate her version of a pond into her desert landscape. This was a welcome surprise on our trip through the Santa Clara River Preserve . If we hadn’t been racing the sun we would have stayed longer.

Simplicity and beauty is a combo I can never seem to accomplish. But in nature it’s commonplace

Blooming cactus

Cathedral valley

Townsendia (I think)

One of my favorite examples of simplicity is this scene from Chute Canyon in the San Rafael Swell. These trees have become established part way up this sandstone wall in a small ledge.

Happy Saturday