Colorado Cactus

Anyone who has spent time tramping around Colorado knows that there is plenty of cactus - which does not quite fit with the "Rocky Mountain High" image of the state, but so be it.

I like to hike, and while hiking there inevitably is cactus around. We are talking little cactus, not the big things you see in Westerns. I am from back East originally, so cactus still fascinates me, and I'll take pictures of cactus that the locals would probably as soon drive over as look at. But I like it. You don't see a lot of Cactus on Long Island.

This is the kind of cactus that you sometimes don't notice (if you aren't paying attention) until you go "OWWWWWWWWW" when you step on it. Which quickly teaches you to pay attention all the time when hiking. That's a very good habit to get into.

So, I've decided to use this page to collect some pictures I've taken of cactus at various times.

First up, a few I took on July 4, 2014 in the Greencrest Park that overlooks downtown Colorado Springs. The cactus was in bloom, which is always quite beautiful.

Next are pictures I took up in Buena Vista, Colorado. I believe these were in June 2012, and it was early in the morning.  Mt. Columbia is in the background in some of the shots. Some of these cactus also were in bloom. The locals thought I was stone-cold crazy to bother taking pictures of these, but I was determined, and I'm glad I did. The shots, I believe, really give a feel for what the mountains are really like aside from the scenic vistas that you invariably see.

These are higher resolution images, so if you have a slow connection they are going to take a bit of time to load. Since most people have fast speeds these days, though, it shouldn't pose too much of a problem for most viewers.