Blue Devils

Scaled quail in the hot & prickly

tanding on a rock outcropping in the blank spot on the map south of Arizona's San Carlos Apache Reservation, I'm studying the terrain while the desert sunrise begins to erase the overnight chill. Ahead lie long miles of sand and rock studded with plants designed to thrive in country with annual precipitation measured in millimeters. Thorns provide an important adaptation for desert flora, and I know that by the end of the day we will have seen and felt our share in all shapes and sizes. But even that thought can't compromise the beauty of the desert light, as celebrated by the likes of Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe.

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