There is some lushness in the Southwest if you know where to look.

To the left is the trail to the Lower Calf Creek Falls outside Escalante, Utah.
 

To the right is a wall of maidenhair fern in The Narrows at Zion.

More pictures of Zion.  On the left you can see how the river goes wall-to-wall.

On the right we are taking a breather on a river rock.  It was very cool down here.




Our car thermometer shows what it was like on top.  Another reading that day was 114 degrees.

The next page shows another kind of popular hiking in the Southwest.