What is it? Nobody knows. Their latest slogan is "make it real". At least they are trying to make something concrete out of it, some progress ;-).

The last 3 Arizona pictures I will be posting.

Three cacti:

Canyon Lake near Tortilla Flat along Apache Trail (the name of the road):

Rain in the desert is nice because it gets green which is the one thing it badly needs most of the time, but it has its downside:

The washes are getting flooded... It looks like it is a pretty common thing in Arizona!
One thing also that seems to be common is stupid people trying to drive through the water and getting washed away... Arizona passed a "stupid motorist law" that makes those guys pay for their rescue (assuming they make it alive)!

Is a cyclist a motorist? I guess not:

But this guy is still stupid, one wrong step and he'll be in big trouble...

When I hear the word Sahara, that makes me think about sand dunes and camels...

For great basin desert, I immediately think about red rocks shaped in the most incredible way: arches, mesas, pinnacles, canyons, etc...

When the Mojave desert is mentionned, pictures of dry lakes, large valleys, dust, dirt, rocks and giant Yucas pass through my mind.

But when I think about the Sonoran, the first thing that pops up is the Saguaro cactus!

This is the biggest cactus in North America, up to 12m (36ft) tall. It grows only in the Sonoran desert i.e. the southern half of Arizona and the north-west coast of Mexico. The Saguaro cactus is more needy in water than other cacti and the Sonoran desert is the only desert in North America that has a mansoon, it rains not only in winter there like in other deserts, but also in summer...

This cactus is very common in Arizona. It is the star of a national park near Tucson: Saguaro National Park where I took these two pictures.

I spent president's day week-end in Arizona... I am still sorting through my pictures and I am going to post them in the next two weeks, so if you don't like cactus and rocks, don't come here! Actually there have been so much rain this winter that the desert was incredibly green and Arizona did not look like an arid zone at all :-) !
To start, here is a picture of the Tonto National Forest located north-east of Phoenix.

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This forest is more than one million hectares big, about the size of Connecticut.

Try this: http://y.20q.net. Think about something and answer the AI questions... It does not take a lot of questions for it to guess it!

It took the AI 15 questions to find out I was thinking about my socks, 19 for a horse, and 17 for the TV. Then I tried to trick it and I ran the game thinking about sex-related stuff... After 28 questions it almost told me I was a pervert and stopped the game w/o telling me its guess ;-)) !!
Try it, it's fun!

IT has been a while since I played with the Panorama Factory, all the panoramas I have in my small collection were done in California. So here is the latest one, a panorama of a north Georgia forest:

You need Quicktime to see it. Click on the picture:

There is a bench and a river on this panorama, would you be able to find them?

Boggs Creek:

Cow Rock Creek (best creek name ever!):

Little Ridge Creek:

One day, I will have a small cabin in the middle of a forest on the side of a small creek:-) I wish it has three things:
1. A riffle, to scare away wolves and bears when going outside to get some wood for the fireplace.
2. An internet access.
3. A roof exactly like that!

One more waterfall!

Actually two more, but with the same name. Upper Desoto Falls (on the left) and lower DeSoto Falls (on the right)..

They are named after Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto. The legend says that a piece of Armor that belonged to De Soto or one of his men was found here. De Soto was a conquistador that explored the southern USA around 1540 in case you are wondering. After Cortez success with the Aztec in Mexico, he hoped to find gold here as well. He didn't, but he found the falls!