Cotton

 Oh let me tell you all about cotton, rows and rows of cotton.  Today we took a cotton farm tour and it was so interesting.  The cotton is planted in March and is soon to be harvested.

Cotton has been grown in Arizona since the early 1900's

 

The seeds are planted about six inches apart and once the plant is mature it blooms a beautiful yellow flower.

The yellow flower then turns purple and dries up and falls off

 

 

 When the purple flowers drop off the little ball has developed.

The little balls grow into nice cotton balls, at this time they turn off the water and let them dry and soon the balls pop open to display the cotton.

There are two types of cotton a short and a long, here they grow mostly short but below is a long

What a wonderful tour, now we know all about the cotton.

Valley of Fire

 Hello everyone, one of my bucket list items was to get to see the Valley of Fire, so this trip south we added a few days to manage to get it in.  It is just east of Las Vegas and if you get the chance do it.

Here I am first day up at the crack of dawn and the rocks are beaming color.

We did quite a bit of walking so saw a few interesting creatures.

 This is the Rainbow Canyon

 Next hike, the White Dome trail, here is Rienk and Lona making their way down.

 Different rock formations which ever way you look.

 And then into a slot canyon

 Looks like you could be on the moon

 Atlati Rock, up early to do this little walk, was pretty steep all the same, my knees were wobbly.

 This was a favorite walk into the Firewave. Sometimes my photography does not do it justice, so beautiful

 Back at the visitors center and here are our greeters

 Seven Sisters

 Just called the cabins for the Core of Engineers in 1939

 Elephant Rock, I know you really have to have a good imagination

Yes everything I expected and more, mark that one off the bucket list.