Mile 122.8, Forster Canyon, Up Canyon View from River Left (Stake 1487a)
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20 February 1890
Low clouds obscured the distant cliffs when Stanton took this photograph looking up Forster Canyon across an eolian sand deposit. Mormon tea, grizzlybear pricklypear, grasses, narrowleaf yucca, and catclaw are scattered across the slope in the foreground.
Photo credit: Robert B. Stanton, 57-RS-558, courtesy of The National Archives
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4 February 1990
A century later, the narrowleaf yucca have grown much larger, and some of the Mormon tea and catclaw also persist. Several clusters of pricklypear are now here, along with snakeweed, Indian ricegrass, and big galleta grass.
Photo credit: Tom Brownold
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24 September 2010
Two decades on, many of the yucca, Mormon tea, and catclaw that were present in 1890 are still alive, while some of the Indian ricegrass and big galleta from 1990 persist as well. The catclaw are leafed out and hence easier to see, but appear to have grown in the twenty years since the previous match. Pricklypear, some of it persistent since 1990, has increased in size and in quantity.
Photo credit: Bill Lemke
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