Nestled alongside the Pusch Ridge near Tucson, this Arizona State Park boasts some of the area’s most popular hiking. Threatened by the Bighorn Fire of 2020, Catalina State Park became one of the incident command centers.

Fire begins to crawl along Bighorn and Table mountains in the Pusch Ridge north of Tucson, Arizona.

Helecopter crews fight fire in the 2020 Bighorn Fire near Tucson. Carrying water by “pumpkins” helps douse flames.

Perhaps 6-8 tons of water are stored in these huge ancient saguaro cacti on the Sonoran Desert within the confines of Catalina State Park, near Tucson, Arizona.

Dover is a stop on the Kansas Native Stone Scenic Byway and home of great food at the Somerset Hall Cafe.

The Volland Gallery sits on the Kansas prairie near Alma and between fingers of ancient ridges within the Kansas Flint Hills. Once covered by the North American Inland Sea, Kansas is home to a multitude of sea fossils from the Cretaceous Period and found from the Dover area all the way to the Rockies.

Sun sets over hot neon as the summer sizzles in Prescott, Arizona.

Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the picnic view along Golden Gate road in Saguaro National Park West is incomparable, especially at sunset.

Barn on the fertile farmlands of Douglas County, Kansas, just outside the hills of the once glaciated northern region.

The Battle of Picacho Pass is reenacted at the current day state park in Arizona.

Thick saguaro forests line the hills of the original Tucson Basin floor, cut over millennia by erosion to create today’s current floor. Trails in Catalina State Park allow visitors first-hand engagement with the natural history of the area.

A line of the Southern Pacific, the old water tower at Red Rock, Arizona, overlooks a double-stack intermodal headed into Tucson from the West Coast.

Labeling design for Pur-O-Zone product image and compliance upgrade. Part of a multi-product line branding improvement.

The Presidio District of downtown Tucson, Arizona, was saved from urban renewal in the 1960s by dedicated local activists and has become one of the most visited and upscale parts of the city center.

Manhattan, Kansas, boasts a favorite destination, Sunset Zoo. Expansive floral landscaping attracted this addition.

Iconic Shamrock, Texas, Conoco station and tower ablaze with art deco neon built in 1935 along Route 66.

Rodeo fans admire the high-speed acrobatics of both horse and rider in the barrel racing event, Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Rodeo is held in the second half of February each year.

Launch of high speed model rockets takes place at Desert Heat event, west of Tucson near Saguaro National Park west.

Barrel, opuntia and organ-pipe cactus at Tucson’s Bontanical Gardens.

This winding path that wanders west out of Tucson, through the Contzen Pass and along the Saguaro National Park is named for the many petroglyphs remaining in the area. The Tucson Basin has been actively and continuously inhabited for at least 4,000 years.

Arizona sentinels reach for the clouds. Saguaro forests are endangered by rising temperatures and lowering water tables created by climate changes that have them at the edge of their viability.

An Anna’s Hummingbird surveys visitors as they work their way through the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum habitat made for them. ASDM is both a zoo of Sonoran wildlife and an interactive interpretive center with a gift store of world renown. Ranked both as one of the top ten museums and one of the top 20 zoos in the United States.

Ned W. Link surveys the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum grounds and Desert Loop Trail from the treehouse located centrally. A limited number of scooters is available for those needing assistance moving about the park.

A crested or “cristate” saguaro graces the Desert Nature Trail nearest the visitor center in the park. The Crested Saguaro Society has identified 2214 of these mutated oddities. The cause of the cristate saguaro has not been positively identified.

Sonoran Desert trees and shrubs utilize small leaves that reduce evaporation during dry periods. They also create mesmerizing moire patterns as sunlight filters through them.

Perhaps best known as the SP train station where Wyatt Earp fatally shot Frank Stilwell at the beginning of his vendetta ride, December 28, 1881 in Tucson. He had just sent his family away on the train after attacks on brother Virgil who was shot in the arm and brother Morgan who had been killed through a window while playing billiards on an evening eight days earlier. Stilwell and Ike Clanton had been sent to kill Earp and perhaps others by “Cowboys” leader Curly Bill (Brocius). Today the station offers excellent dining, a marketplace and an historic restored Amtrack station. Railroad fans will appreciate the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum.

Saguaros crowd the hills protecting Ez-Kim-In-Zin picnic area, built by CCC engineers between January and May 1934. Found along unpaved Golden Gate Road, this site is surrounded by trails and a breathtaking example of the Sonoran Desert.

High-flying fun at the Tucson Rodeo, an annual late-winter event.

Wamego, Kansas, is the tulip capital of the Midwest. Photographer and subject take advantage of a field of blooms under the Dutch Mill.

Fat saguaro lifts its multiple arms almost forming a sombrero. Near the Picture Rocks Petroglyphs along Picture Rocks Wash.