Colorado National Monument has a lot of wildlife for a desert.
We mostly only saw lizards though.
And plants.
Because it was too hot for most animals to be out and about.
But some cool lizards were showing off how tough they are.
This is a spiky plant.
There were signs next to all of the plants, but we’re writing this months later and don’t remember what any of them said.
We do remember that this is a cactus flower.
Partially because we have another picture of it attached to the cactus.
Some of the cactus flowers were orange.
They are also pollenated by bees.
These were not cactus flowers.
This is yucca.
The leaves at the base catch rainwater and funnel it toward the root.
The flowers look like garlic.
They are pollenated by the yucca moth.
Then they make these green pod things.
This is not yucca, it’s juniper. Though the flowers still look garlicky
This is a beetle.
