The foreground has spherical rocks and ocotillo.
I waited as long as I could, but I knew that I would want to share a photo from my trip with Matt, Nick, and Kenny to Big Bend National Park as soon as possible. I took this landscape photo on our second full day within the park. The mountains in the background are the Chisos Mountains. On the first full day that our group had within the park, we hiked the 10.2 mile round trip trail to the top of Emory Peak. That summit is the highest point in the Chisos Mountains at 7,825 feet. After such a strenuous uphill hike, we decided to spend the second day around our campsite. What was great about that is that we could simply hike in any direction and see things that we had never seen before. Whether it was a unique cactus, a grasshopper, a rock formation, a scorpion, or so much more, the world was entirely new to us.
In Matt's story this month about Table Rock at Grafton Notch in New Hampshire, he describes the fact that the best landscape photos draw your eyes from the foreground to the middle ground to the background. In this photo, you have the interesting spherical rock formations in the foreground surrounded by ocotillo. In the middle ground you can see the greenery of the plants growing along Croton Spring as well as small hills on the far left and right of the photo. Then the background is dominated by the entirety of the Chisos Mountains. I love how this photo was taken at the perfect distance to frame the mountain range.
Ocotillo
What is ocotillo? My brother, who was on the trip as well, kept talking about the ocotillo as we drove into the park. I was struggling to see what he was talking about. Once we got to our first campsite though, it became apparent. Ocotillo is a sprawling, tall, and finger-like plant that grows in the desert. Depending on the time of the year (typically following rain), it grows small leaves that cover it causing it to appear like a tube sponge from a coral reef. The tallest these plants can be found is over 30 feet tall!
They can grow to be 30+ feet tall
More Fun Facts!
- The Chisos Mountain range is the only mountain range that has its entire range entirely protected within the bounds of a national park.
- Ocotillo grows in dry, rocky soil.
- Ocotillo plants grow red flowers.
- The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds and carpenter bees.
- They are only found in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Colorado deserts.
- The ocotillo plant is closely related to tea and blueberry plants.
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