Isla Santa Catalina

A giant granodioritic elephant guards the bay, the entrance to a magical land of botanical monoliths. The grandest of cardon cacti stretch arms weighing tons toward azure skies streaked with cirrus wisps. Barrel cacti, fifteen feet tall march in the drainages and along the ridge lines, the outer cortex of the elderly sagging like baggy leg warmers. Camera perspective dwarfs the Sea Bird but no trickery from the vegetative world was necessary to make us aware of the grandeur of the flora surrounding us.