By Jürgen Schrenk
In early December, the desert offered a great escape from the foggy and chilly December days in our interior valleys. Since no flowers could be expected this time of the year, we selected the Volcanic Hills with their interesting geology and colorful rocks as our destination. To our surprise many of the inconspicuous shrubs were in bloom, such as desert lavender (Condea emoryi).
California barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus) was present; sometimes unusually tall (here about 6‘2”) and sometimes extremely branched (we counted 24 shoots in this clump).
So, the escape worked out beautifully - with a clear-blue sky and (at least for me) T-shirt temperatures.