Back to Mt Ord

It finally got too hot to hike in the valley. It was around 108 yesterday. Time to head to higher altitudes. I decided to go to the end of the road on Mt Ord. I got distracted last time I was there and didn't make it to the end. Also, the last time I was there, there was a lot of traffic on the road. Several cars passed me back then. (Arizonans believe very strongly that if you go fast enough, the road won't feel as bumpy, and smoothing out the bumps is more important than avoiding collisions or staying on the road.) This time, I didn't see another vehicle on the dirt road for the two and a half hours I was out there. Still, I didn't get many pictures on the way up because there aren't many places to pull over and I kept thinking I'd be in the way if I just stopped in the road.

The top of Mt Ord. I can't quite get there, though.

I didn't do any hiking on this trip. I did wander around a little here and there, but no exertion. The highest altitude I got to was only 6800 feet. I had a headache, though, and the higher I went, the worse it got. I think I had a touch of altitude sickness. The headache was gone by the time I got home.

There are some interesting looking alligator junipers up there.

I've misplaced my plant book, so I have no idea what this is.

At one of the places I was wandering around, I noticed a few bugs flying around. They looked sort of like lady bugs, except I'm used to lady bugs that are red and with consistent black spots. These were orange and some had spots and some didn't. I noticed a group of them on the leaf of a plant and took a picture because there were so many in one place.

I thought this was a lot of bugs ...

I started looking around, and everywhere I looked there were more bugs. They were covering rocks and trees all over the place. I think they were trying to cover me, too, but they couldn't find any comfortable spots on me.

... until I saw stuff like this.

I had read about something similar to this on another blog and was going to link to it, but that blog has mysteriously vanished, along with its author. I think that must have something to do with the work he's doing now. Spooky stuff.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_06_06