Hell's Half Acre, Frozen Over

I stopped off at the Hell's Half Acre rest area on the way back from IF today and wandered around on the paved trail. I would recommend gloves to anyone else who does so; I foolishly left mine in the car. Note, however, that the trail is still technically closed for the winter (for no good reason at the moment, though we could get a massive enough snowfall to cause problems). Anyway, some pictures:

The sun put some interesting color into this one:


Oh, and apparently there was a ghost nearby in this shot. The blob at the top left couldn't possibly just be a sun-reflection spot. ;^)


There's a surprising amount of moss for a desert just now. Probably because the moisture hasn't been totally evaporated out yet, or hasn't had time to sink clear down into the rocks. [Okay, technically that's lichen in this shot. I'll post one with moss later.]


This is my absolute favorite picture from today. Nearly of all time.


And seeing all the prickly pear was like seeing old friends. Not sure why this one was so red. The grass growing in it was rather red, too. Something in the soil in that spot?