AZ, NM (12-2001)

	Saguaro cactus skeleton. The inside structure of these cacti is made up of a skeleton of very strong wood. Much like an animal, when the cactus dies the soft parts decompose first leaving the skeleton behind.
	West unit of the Saguaro National Park. Both the east and west units of the park are just outside Tucson. Encroachment by urban areas is a constant threat to the park units.
	Heavy frost and some ice on our rental car in Tucson. The kind of weather we had there is quite rare. The icy roads that morning made headlines in the newspapers.
	Karen and a large barrel cactus in the east unit of the Saguaro National Park. The yellow things on the top are fruit. Barrel cacti alway lean towards the south.
	Here's something you don't (yet) have to worry about in Michigan. This is a killer bee trap on the grounds of the Beaudry RV park in Tucson where we were staying. We assume the trap is used to count killer bee populations.
	Karen in front of a gypsum dune at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. This was one of our favorite places that we visited! The sand dunes are made of gypsum, the same stuff they make wall board out of. It looks just like snow!
	Ross at the top of one of the many dunes. We hiked out along the Alkali Flats trail. It runs out about 2 miles through the dunes to the Alkali Flats. Here's how you hike through the dunes: up and down, up and down, up and down...
	See the little bit of orange sticking out of the sand? That's the tip of a buried trail marker. The dunes are constantly moving causing the trail markers to be buried as the dune moves over them.
	And when the dune moves on, the trail markers pop out of the sand!
	Sign at the end of the dune field and the start of the Alkali Flats.
	The Alkali Flats.
	Karen hiking along the dunes. The 2 sets of foot prints on her left, the only other foot prints we saw once we got deep into the dune field, show just how wonderfully isolated it was out there.
	The park road. It looks just like a freshly ploughed road after a snow storm!