I took a drive to Phoenix, Arizona, just a week into May to see my son and his family. What made it a phenomenal drive was that much of the desert in both California and Arizona was receiving surprisingly heavy rainfall.

Near Desert Center, there was sizable hail coming down hard, leaving ice on the desert floor. Talk about a strange sight.

The rest of the drive was in rain, heavy at times with the windshield wipers slapping at full speed, and there was standing water in spots across the usually arid desert-scape.

Three days later, on the drive back across the desert, there were still active cells of showers, mostly light, and the windshield wipers were on intermittent.

If April showers bring May flowers, what will May rainstorms bring?

The answer to that was all around and dazzling because desert plants are programmed to race to make seeds and buds and flowers.

The difference in the desert in three days time was astounding.

Bushes seemed to be exploding with growth and covered with fuzzies they make new bushes with. Small plants were sprouting buds and branches.

A carpet of grasses was beginning to show. That grass sends up green blades to absorb and sunshine and then grows seeds astonishingly fast.

It was a site to behold, and I just had to find a turnout where I could stop, get out and celebrate with the racing desert plants.

I felt like my love of the desert — where I spent so much time in my youth — was accepted and used to help fuel the regrowth race.

I carefully chose a high spot turnoff, because I know full-well the deadly side of the desert. The scariest times I can remember on the desert were during rainy periods.

In some cases it was blistering hot where I was, but there were dark clouds over desert mountains and those flash floods can bury a person or even a car in sand and mud.

The desert is to be respected as much as loved and cherished.

A workload back home prevented me from making another run to the Mojave Desert within the next week, but I sure wanted to. Every plant would be full of reproductive growth and every critter would be well watered and fed.

Between the plants and the critters, a rainstorm like that is a total reset for desert life at all levels. This will be an amazing season out on the land.