Tripple pronged Cactus along the victoria highway

You can eat them if you're really hungry - bit chewy

Actually, in a place called Hurricane in Utah USA, we stopped to buy icecream from the Trading Post - we chose the "prickly pear" flavour after the lady told us they made it there - and for sure there was cactus everywhere. It is simply divine - so if you ever get a chance, do try it.

Cactoblastis Moth is the one that got stuck into the Pear.

I drove the inland route from NSW to Townsville back in '86 and the paddocks looked like forests of pear, so thick there was no way you could walk through it, let alone put stock in there.
5 years later I did the same drive and couldn't believe the impact the bugs had had on the Prickly Pear, a few isolated bushes where there had been impenetrable thicket.

Certainly a win for the Ag Department.

Speaking of Utah, Michelle... I remember reading your wonderful blog about your Southwest trip. What happened to it? Hopefully it is still up and I'm simply overlooking it. I have visited all the same places so it was fun to read about your experiences. :)

As for cactus in Oz... I'll try to avoid importing any when I visit! :) And just as important, avoid taking home the beetle or bug that likes to eat it!!

Thanks Candice - oh dear for some reason they have changed status and are now hidden.... not just that trip but heaps of our old blogs. I will have to investigate this and get them back up - thanks for letting me know!

Candice we have fixed the problem with our missing blogs so here is the link to that day in Utah the day before our Zion National Park visit when we had to travel to a town to Hurricane and passed through a crazy town callled "Virgin" whose main feature was a crazy-looking Trading Post with odd buildings and prickly pear cactus out the front -
here is the blog for that day -
https://www.exploroz.com/Members/82.875/9/2011/Bryce_Canyon_National_Park.aspx

Thanks, and I'm sure others will enjoy seeing them as well!

I'm familiar with Virgin and Springdale, though I don't recall ever actually stopping in them, so you are ahead of me there. :)

I see you, like me, learned the hard way: When you book hotels via those "third-party" sites, call the hotel directly to verify they actually have the reservation! Sometimes the information doesn't reach the hotel, for some reason.

Oh, and I am also a big fan of Trip Advisor. :)

I think you hit the nail on the head Silkwood. They are not there now, so they must have been removed. It was just the same as Mexico buttressed rock country with the cactus and all. ??