Scenes from the Desert

When I drove out of our little gated community on Monday, I saw this:

It seems that our pounding of rain left us with some snow on the mountains.  I knew there were more pictures to be had, so I drove a couple short miles up the road to the Tonto National Forest to see if I could get a better view from there.

I was able to get a great up-close shot of Red Mountain, which I also see when I pull out of our drive, and some pretty foliage.

 

I really like the vintage look of this one...

...and the "old west" look of this shot here:

But, it still wasn't what I was looking for.  I wanted to see those beautiful snowy mountains, so I drove on up the road a bit.

It was at this point in my journey that I began to think that The Eagles were sounding an awful lot like Hootie and the Blowfish.  About 60 seconds later I realized that my Eagles CD had changed to my Hootie and the Blowfish CD and suddenly my world made sense again.  In the midst of this, I found the shot I was looking for:

There's something really beautiful about the contrast between the desert and the snow-capped mountains.

Up close, things are even prettier: 

And for my wonderful Grandmother, who says that I do not blog enough pictures of myself, this one is for you: