We arrived at the Cholla Garden near the end of our visit, and I discovered that I was out of room on my compact flash card, and had neglected to bring another card with me. Fortunately, Ken was not as improvident as I, and was happily shooting photos of the Chollas. Above is one shot that I really wanted to take, and was delighted to find that Ken had exactly the same idea. Also above is a typical Cholla in all its green and brown glory. These are sometimes called Teddy Bear Cholla because of their soft and cuddly appearance. Appearances are deceiving, not only wouldn't you want to cuddle one, you really need to avoid getting too close, or you'll get spiked.

Before I ran out of space on my card I got a shot of the Buckthorn Cholla. Its spikes are clearly spikes, and it doesn't seem in the least bit cuddly.

Below is Ken's shot of baby caterpillars that I missed. Someday I will own a camera that actually focuses where I am pointing.

I did get a nice shot of a Mojave Mound Cactus growing in front of a piece of granite rock.

Below are two lizards, I'm pretty sure the first is a Western Side-Blotched lizard, which to me looks an awful lot like the California Fence lizards I used to catch as a kid. We called them Blue Bellies. I'm no longer fast enough to catch a lizard, so I don't know what his underside looks like, which is much more distinctive than the top view. I think the other one is probably some kind of Whiptail.

Ken shot this one of me in the shrubbery, intent upon getting a photo of something. I suspect it was one of the nests of caterpillars that we found. And none of my shots of them came out right: the shrubs were in focus, but the baby caterpillars weren't. Below is a shot I took of Ken Kauppi and his daughter Erika at Juniper Flats (we did find some junipers too, although none are in view here), and one Ken took of Erika and our friend, and volunteer driver, Bruce.