NORTH FACE of Juniper

This is the north wall of Juniper Peak (6,109'), as seen from the Pine Creek Canyon Trail in Nevada's Red Rocks. I know this IS a rock climbing paridise. But for some strange reason, I was more interested in identifying the multitude of plants. Plant species that thrive along the Pine Creek Trail include blackbrush, yucca, cholla, prickly pear cactus, bitterbush, scrub oak, willow, sagebrush, manzanita, yerba buena, silk tassel, pinyon pine and JUNIPER, not to mention the myriad of wildflowers that bloom in Spring. (Sp-member Anya Jingle has the wildflowers pretty much covered in her awesome gallery.) What I found interesting was the Ponderosa pines I saw TOWERING over the mouth of the canyon. Ponderosas don't normally grow at this low elevation (about 4,000 feet); they're more common above 5,000 feet, (like in Payson, Arizona), where the air is cooler and precipitation is higher. But this "forest" is a remnant of the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, when Southern Nevada was much cooler and wetter. Do you remember that crazy squirrel in the movie "Ice Age?" Well, I didn't see any squirrels or Bighorn sheep on this hike, but I'm sure they were there. March 16, 2008