Rainy day drive

It's been raining so much lately, it doesn't seem unusual any more. While running an errand Saturday morning, I saw that there were clouds covering the tops of the Superstition Mountains. It was raining now and then so I wasn't going for a hike. I decided to drive around and see if I could get some pictures with interesting clouds.

The clouds here were moving too fast to make an HDRI.

I was thinking that since it was such gloomy weather, maybe there wouldn't be any crowds at the Renaissance Fair and I might be able to drive out to Superior. As I headed east, though, I kept thinking about how the eastbound highway would probably be closed down to one lane and traffic would be slow even if there wasn't much of it. Instead of Superior, I took the Idaho exit and headed for Apache Trail.

Along the way I drove down FR80. The road goes to SRP employee housing in the Salt River canyon. There must be something else down there, but I don't know what. For some reason they don't want people wandering down there.

KEY POUT.

I stopped at the scenic walk at the top of Fish Creek Hill, too. It was really cloudy while I was there, so those pictures turned out kind of boring. There was a woman selling Indian jewelry near the start of the trail. I was going to buy some on my way back to the truck but she was gone by then. I guess it was getting late.

Agave leaves holding rainwater.

Late or not, there seemed to be a lot of traffic going up and down the Fish Creek Hill road. It's a narrow (wide enough for one vehicle much of the way) with a rock wall on one side and an almost vertical drop on the other. There's a guard rail in places, but it's the flimsiest guardrail I've ever seen; I think it would have trouble stopping a fast bicycle. There's a place where the guardrail has been knocked out and somebody spray painted on what's left, "Wish you were here, Dave. We miss you, Bro". I don't know if it's for real or a joke. There are certainly plenty of pieces of vehicles scattered down the steep sides. Anyway, I decided to drive on down to Fish Creek. I only encountered one vehicle on the way down, and none on the way back up later.

Ever hear the expression, "That's water under the bridge"? Here's a picture of it.

By the time I got back to the scenic walk, the sun was peeking out now and then. I got a few pictures that I like. It's a very pretty area, but most of the pictures I've taken of it don't do a very good job of showing what's there. The splotches of sunlight on this day added some dimensionality to the pictures.

I like what the splotches of sunlight did.

When I was almost back to the paved part of the road, I spotted something I've been meaning to get a picture of for several years. It's a rock that is shaped like a frog.

Frog Rock.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_02_20