This morning was a special time. Inside the Joshua Tree National Park is an enormous field of Cholla Cactus. This cactus field lines the entire hillside through a vast valley midway between the north and south entrance on the eastern side of the park.

The Cholla is often referred to as the “Teddy Bear” cactus. For obvious reasons. They look a lot like what one might envision a Teddy Bear looking like were it a cactus.

Trouble is, they are wicked.

They have another name. “Jumping Cactus”.

Why?

They appear to jump.

The cacti, when they are growing, grow in what I would refer to as “balls”. These balls are barely attached to the plants. Not only that, they become dislodged from their “host” very easily. All you have to do is barely brush them and they are on you for the ride.

And good luck pulling these things off!

Because they are incredibly full of spines upon trying to remove the ball, they will simply roll onto new spines continuing to cause pain…and remain stuck in the host.

This is not to mention how difficult they are to pull off. If, for example, you get one caught in your shoe, clothing, or worse, your skin, you are going to need a pair of pliers to remove the ball. The ball will leave spines behind as well and each and every one of them will need to be removed with the pliers.

Thankfully, I carry a Gerber Multi Tool everywhere I go. In the past week, I have had to remove two of these balls. One, the other day in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and then today in the Cholla Cactus Garden.

In Anza, I leaned my hand on the ball on the ground while crawling around to get a low shot of a tiny wildflower. Jammed that one in pretty well. It was quite the process pulling it off.

Today, it only lodged into the side of my shoe.

It took some real doing to get the one out of my hand.

I’ve had a few folks tell me that often, if they get in the skin, it requires a hospital visit to have them surgically removed. That’s how firmly they stay put once injected. I’ll confirm just how securely they stay lodged. It really pulled the skin away from my hand in the process of removal.

Nasty little buggers.

However, they DO make beautiful subject matter and I wanted to share them with you today in the gallery below.

Because we headed to the garden at dark, we had no idea what we were in store for on the way back.

We drove past a small field backed up against some large hills and this provided some wonderful photographic opportunity.

Not to mention…a few bees and a lone lady bug to boot.

Good stuff. Joelle is in heaven with all this wildflower madness.

Enjoy the photos. I’ll be back soon.

rob out