Hey everyone,

We’re just finishing up cactus hunting out here in western Utah and now heading east to check out another species, Sclerocactus spinosior (sensitive). It is similar to Sclerocactus wrightiae but has longer spines and bright pink flowers. We’ve also been collecting Pediocactus winkleri fruits for DNA analysis at BYU. When we take the samples up there, we’ll get a chance to check out the herbarium.

This week we’re starting to collect seeds for Seeds of Success, I’ll report back on how that’s going next post.

Since my last post we’ve been seeing a lot of rain and snow. We also drove through Grand Staircase National Monument.  It’s awesome and I can’t wait to hike it this summer. In addition, we’ve happened upon a couple of pictograph sites that native peoples created as long as 1,000 years ago. There was also old graffiti from the 1880s, which was kind of neat to see. (Picture below).

Last post, I couldn’t get pictures to transfer off of my phone, but I figured it out and posted them below. We’ve started to explore more of Utah.  It really is beautiful country. I can’t wait to see more!

Giant Claretcup

A packrat midden next to a Claretcup

Pediocactus winkleri in bud and flower

Hiking out to cacti at the Factory Butte monitoring site (it was cold that day)

There’s two Pedios under those flowers…They’re so tiny!

Fish Creek Cove pictographs

Graffiti from 1887

View of the Henry Mountains from Capitol Reef National Park