SPRING

(spring) n. that season of the year in which plants begin to grow after lying dormant all winter; in the Northern Hemisphere, generally regarded as including the months of March, April and May.

“If you live to be nine and ninety,” Raymond Carlson wrote, “or if you're only nine or deliciously nineteen, spring comes upon you all of a sudden as a surprise, bringing round-eyed admiration and wonder. Spring doesn't come in like a tiresome neighbor, full of innocent small talk, droning out the tiresome tales. Spring comes gushing in, bubbling and sprightly, full of laughter and merriment, new and full of music, exciting and thrilling.”

PRECEDING PANEL: ▲ GUY SCHMICKLE

Purple owl's clover grows in abundance beneath the Sedona area's Courthouse Butte. This vibrant wildflower species can be found in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, California and Mexico.

►DIANNE DIETRICH LEIS

Considered for Front Cover, March 2022 The skeleton of a fallen saguaro cactus punctuates a view of Mexican goldpoppies at Peridot Mesa, a site on San Carlos Apache Tribe land in Eastern Arizona. The mesa is known for its wildflowers, which typically appear between late February and early April.

GUY SCHMICKLE

Considered for Wildflowers Are Springing Up Everywhere, March 2022 Near Bartlett Lake, a reservoir northeast of Phoenix, blooming brittlebushes blanket a hillside amid saguaros and teddy bear chollas. This widespread, drought-resistant shrub is one of the Sonoran Desert's most recognizable plants.

Considered for The Journal: Photography, April 2022 Multicolored wildflowers fill a meadow near Crescent Lake, a reservoir in the White Mountains. Crescent Lake is just north of the much larger Big Lake, along State Route 273.

GEORGE H.H. HUEY

Considered for Wildflowers Are Springing Up Everywhere, March 2022 A prickly pear cactus in Southern Arizona's Pima County displays its delicate blooms. In this region of the state, prickly pear flowers typically appear in May and June.

► DOUGLAS KOEPSEL

Considered for The Dammed Good Lakes of the Salt River, July 2022

EIRINI PAJAK

Considered for Back Cover, March 2022

Water droplets collect on moss sporophytes near Florence, southeast of Phoenix. The photographer used focus stacking to combine 71 exposures and create this final image.

JEFF MALTZMAN

Considered for It's All Yours!, May 2022

Purple wildflowers at Catalina State Park proliferate beneath Pusch Ridge, a feature of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The ridge is protected by a 57,000-acre wilderness area that offers numerous hiking trails.

► JACK DYKINGA Considered for Parks and Recreation, May 2022

34 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Considered for The Journal: Photography, April 2022 Sand verbenas, evening primroses and other wildflowers proliferate on a rippled sand dune in the Havasu Wilderness. This nearly 18,000-acre wilderness area, part of which is in California, protects numerous plant and animal species and offers pristine desert hiking.

EIRINI PAJAK

Ice forms on a delicate flower near Florence in a combination of 28 focus-stacked images. “The rain was starting to melt the ice when I photographed this flower, and my skirt was drenched by the time I was done,” the photographer recalls.

Considered for Long Stories Short, July 2022 Flowers line the bank of East Clear Creek as the calm surface of the Mogollon Rim waterway mirrors steep canyon walls. This view is from the Kinder Crossing Trail, an easy 1.5-mile (round-trip) hike from a trailhead along Forest Road 95T.

CLAIRE CURRAN Considered for Back Cover, August 2022 Mushrooms thrive amid wildflowers along the East Fork of the Little Colorado River, a key White Mountains waterway. An array of mushroom species can be found in Arizona's high country.

►ADAM SCHALLAU Considered for Front Cover, August 2022 Indian paintbrushes and other wildflowers grow in rocky terrain beneath aspen trunks near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This high-elevation part of Northern Arizona is known for its summer wildflowers.