Читать книгу One Best Hike: Grand Canyon. Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Hike from the Rim to the River—and Back онлайн

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Blackbrush scrub: This community is defined by the dominance of blackbrush and covers the Tonto Platform. Unless you head toward Plateau Point, the characteristic monostands of blackbrush are not observed along the Bright Angel Trail, since the trail descends along the Garden Creek drainage, first down the dry wash below Jacobs Ladder and then through riparian (streamside) vegetation below Indian Garden. On the South Kaibab Trail, you are in blackbrush scrub as you cross the Tonto Platform and approach the Tipoff.

Mojave Desert scrub: This community exists below the Tonto Platform down to the Colorado River. The species growing here can withstand extremely high summer temperatures and many require milder winters. Although it is informally termed Mojave Desert scrub, the plant community contains many species not present in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. For instance, species such as brittlebush and catclaw acacia that are typical of the warmer Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona exist in the Inner Gorge. Farther downstream, species such as honey mesquite, characteristic of the Chihuahuan Desert, enter the mix. Indeed, along the Colorado River corridor a unique combination of species grow, for three of North America’s four deserts merge in this region.