Along and around A Cross Road

I went for a drive along A Cross Road and some roads that intersect it yesterday. I was planning to hike some, but my stomach decided that wasn't a good idea. So I just drove around getting pictures of the awesome clouds and some other desert stuff.

I like the way this turned out.

Along FR-88 I saw three saguaros with tires on them. In Texas the kids go cow tipping. I guess in Arizona they go saguaro tiring.

A "tired" saguaro.

Along NF-88.

I think this is my favorite.

Nothing exciting happened. No disasters. Nothing to write about. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_09_14

Mudfish Rock

Don't go looking for Mudfish Rock on any maps. I just named it that.

Mudfish Rock.

I went for a drive on a cloudy, rainy day. I wasn't planning to go for a hike. Well, I thought I might if there had been enough rain to get a waterfall flowing, but there hadn't been. I started out by going out Apache Trail and just kept going.

Clouds on the Superstition Mountains.

The clouds were so low, they were even on the Goldfield Mountains.

The clouds lifted some as I drove east on Apache Trail. I was planning to turn around before I went down Fish Creek Hill, and that was when I spotted the rock that looks like a mudfish. It isn't far from the road, so I decided to hike out to it even though it was very humid and even though I was wearing a black shirt. Speaking of black shirts, I almost never wear one because I live in a sunny desert and wearing a black shirt out here can be very uncomfortable. However, I see lots of people walking around the Phoenix area in the summer wearing black clothes. That makes no sense. It's kinda like going naked in the snow. The weather is already uncomfortable enough, so why put on clothes that make it even worse? Arizonans do a lot of things that seem senseless. Don't get me started.

Where was I? Oh, on my way to Mudfish Rock. When I got out to the rock, there were several interesting things about it that I wanted to show, but pictures wouldn't have done a good job of showing them so I made movies. Something very annoying that shows up in the movies is a spot on the left side of the image. I haven't figured out what the spot is, yet. It isn't on the front of the lens. It seems too big to be dust on the sensor. Also, if it was dust, my Canon camera should have shaken it off by now. I hope I haven't burned the sensor, but I'm usually very careful about where I point the camera when I have it in live mode. Anyway, I'm going to try embedding videos in the blog again.

Gap under Mudfish Rock.

On the other side of the rock.

If you want to see all of the videos, go to my Youtube channel. Click below to see all of the pictures. I took a lot of HDRIs that day because of the clouds, and I processed the HDRIs so the clouds would stand out.

2013_09_08

Just too hot

One day last week, I was thinking I should go for a hike. It was 108, and I decided it was too hot to go for a hike. The next day I felt bad about being so lazy and decided I should go for a hike even if it's 108. It was 110. I decided it was too hot. The next day I felt bad about being so lazy again, but it was 112. I wrestled with the decision for a couple of hours and then decided to go out and at least get some pictures of the storm clouds. I stopped at the closest place where I thought I could get some pictures of a rainbow. It was flat and I just wandered around slowly getting various saguaros in the cloud or rainbow pictures. The temperature had dropped by the time I got out there, but it still felt oppressively hot. I think I got some nice pictures, though.

A cool storm cloud.

The rainbow.

For some reason, I really like this picture.

I like the way this one turned out, too.

I also got pictures of a cryptic sign and some lightning, but those aren't very impressive. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_08_16

Hike to an overlook of Saguaro Lake

This is someplace I've been before. I thought I might be able to find a more direct route, but I still went up and down and up and down and ... There might be a way to get there without all that, but it might be a long walk, too.

I followed this wash for a little way. It's still packed hard from recent rains, so walking was easy.

There were still puddles from recent rains, too.

There was even green moss.

The hike up to the top of the cliff was pretty boring. I made a video of getting to the top of the cliff where there's a view of the lake. I've decided I don't like the way videos look on my blog, though, so you will have to click here to see it. You can hear me freak out when I realize that I'm standing on the edge of a 300 foot cliff.

I walked a short distance to the east along the cliff. I was from 4 to 6 feet from the edge. I kept realizing that I was leaning away form the cliff. It probably would have looked funny if you could have seen it. I'm pretty sure nobody saw me, though. I waved to some people on the the lake but they didn't wave back. I thought about saying "Hello" but was worried that they might think I was in trouble and send help. Then I really would be in trouble. When I meet people on a trail, they often ask if I'm OK. When I say "Yes", they ask if I'm sure I'm OK. I must look really bad when I'm hiking.

View from the top of the cliff.

The view from up there is very nice. It's easily worth the pointless ups and downs to get there. Just don't forget where you parked. No, I didn't forget, but I can see how that would be easy to do. I made careful note of where along the road I had parked so I would know which way to turn no matter where I was along the road when I got back to it. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_08_07

Driving around

I'm not sure that it's really too hot to hike, but that is why I haven't been hiking much lately. Hey, if you think it's too hot, then it is. You would think I would try to go someplace cooler, but instead I tend to drive around close to the valley. That is one way that I find new places to hike once it cools off. Anyway, one day last week I went driving around the desert south of Florence Junction. There were some nice clouds around and I took pictures mainly of those. I need to figure out how to get the clouds to look good without making the ground look bizarre.

Clouds over Dromedary Peak.

A small shower to the southeast.

Fluffy clouds over .... the desert.

When I got back to 60, there were some stranded travelers there. I gave them a ride to a gas station in Gold Canyon, then back to their car. One of them, the tall one, came to Phoenix for the first time in June. I hope she gets to stay until it cools off. It's a nice place when it isn't 112 degrees.

Beware: When the fuel light comes on, your Prius will only go another 14 miles.

Later in the week I needed to get out of town and drove out Four Peaks road, and on out to Cottonwood Campground. It was quite crowded for this time of year. I saw 3 vehicles there.

One of my favorite views of Four Peaks. I like all the saguaros in the foreground.

I took this picture to show the moisture in the air.

If you are sitting on the left side of the plane when you fly from Phoenix to Houston, you will probably see an incredible looking canyon out in the middle of nowhere. Actually, it doesn't look that incredible from about 15,000 or 20,000 feet, but if you recognize some nearby mountains you will realize that it must be an incredible canyon. I have finally figured out that it must be Aravaipa Canyon. A permit is required to hike there. I have no idea how hard it is to get a permit. I do want to hike there someday, though. It must be an amazing place to see. Obviously, I haven't been there yet, but I bring it up because I did drive out the road to the trailhead yesterday and I saw a Gila monster and a couple of desert tortoises. I made a movie of the Gila monster and of one of the tortoises. They make an interesting contrast.

This Gila monster came within about 15 feet of me but didn't know I was there until I took a couple of steps. It didn't notice me messing with the camera, or the sound of the shutter. I guess their eyesight isn't real good. This is the first time I've been near one that didn't see me first, though. Well, they're small.

The tortoise. He wasn't as active as the Gila monster.

I'll upload pictures from that area later. Click below and belower for the other pictures.

2013_07_27

2013_07_28

Checking on a Willow Creek tinaja

After the recent heavy monsoon rains, I went back to the large, deep tinaja on Willow Creek. The rain, though heavy, had been spotty, so I wasn't sure the tinaja would have been refilled. I was pretty sure it had been as soon as I got down to the creek, though.

This water is flowing, so I know the tinaja has to have been refilled.

It was a little tricky getting to the tinaja this time. It wouldn't have been if I didn't mind walking through water, but I do.

Too much water to jump across in many places.

There were some strange looking bugs in the water. Some of those strange ones looked even stranger because they looked like they had algae or something growing on them.

Strange looking bugs.

It's because of things like that that I carry much more water in my backpack than I think I'll need. Also, I collected some water from a tinaja near Tortilla Flat for Lauren to take to a biology lab. The students were supposed to bring in water from pet water dishes and things like that which probably have bacteria growing in them. The professor took one look at Lauren's water and told her she had better dilute it 10:1 before putting it in the petri dishes. She's the only one that had to do that. It only had the slightest tint of green. I thought it was a nice color. Anyway, it was full of coliform bacteria. No surprise there.

The rain also seems to have brought out the millipedes. They were all over the place. I saw two tarantulas in the road on the way home, too. Seems kind of early in the year for them.

One of many millipedes.

Most of the moss had greened-up, too. It looked kind of like a winter day. It didn't feel like it, though. The muggy heat was stifling.

Very green moss.

Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_07_22

Random rambling

One day last week I went out to the spot off Meridian road where I frequently go to take pictures of sunsets. I was there a little early so I was wandering around looking for pieces of RC planes (there's an RC airfield nearby). Anyway, I got a picture of this.

Crepuscular anti-ray?

Now you can Google crepuscular ray and you will find something like this. There's one key difference, though. The "ray" part refers to a ray of light. This picture shows a ray of shadow. Therefore it must be a crepuscular anti-ray. It can't be an anti-crepuscular ray because that is what's shown in the next picture. Sort of.

Anti-crepuscular anti-ray?

If you Google anti-crepuscular ray, you will see that it's crepuscular rays on the side of the sky opposite the sun that seem to converge towards a point at the horizon. Again, I have a picture of a shadow, so it must be an anti-crepuscular anti-ray.

I also got a picture of the moon.

... and some red clouds.

I only wandered a short distance that day, and it was late, and the ground was mostly level, but I got very wet. The humidity is way up because it's that time of year.

I went out there again another day and got another crepuscular anti-ray picture. Then, on my way home, I went by this place at Meridian and Brown road where I always think think I'll stop and get pictures of kids riding horses and decided that it was time to actually stop.

Another crepuscular anti-ray.

I don't know anything about riding horses. I think they were barrel racing or something like that. I tried taking pictures but it was too dark for pictures of movement.

This didn't turn out too bad. Most were very blurred.

I took pictures of this horse because it looked worried. It later convinced me that I should probably leave before I got hurt.

A few days later, I needed to get out and climb something, so I went to a small mesa at the corner of Usery Pass road and Bush Highway. I thought I might be able to get some sunset pictures from there, and the sun and clouds cooperated.

I like the way the clouds look.

In the other direction was a small storm, with lightning. It convinced me that I should get off that mesa.

One day, I got home from work and there was an amazing cloud on the other side of the Superstition Mountains, so I went to get a picture of it. Of course, I had to be in the right setting. I didn't want houses or cars or power lines in the picture. By the time I got to the right place, the cloud was gone. However, another popped up and I like the pictures I got of it.

A nice storm cloud.

I saw some great lightning on the way home, and it was getting dark enough to take pictures of it, so I stopped on the Meridian road overpass. I took about 70 pictures. About 10 had lightning in them. About 4 looked halfway decent.

Twin lightning bolts.

Then, this past weekend, Sweetums and I made our annual summer trip to the top of Mt Lemmon. I think it was only about 95 when we started up the mountain road. It was about 63 near the top in Summerhaven, which feels very nice after a couple of months of 100+ temperatures.

There were some nice clouds around on the way up. It's dark and raining to the left.

I seem to get pictures of the same stuff every time I'm up there.

When we started back down, I saw some clouds draped over parts of the mountain up ahead and pulled off the road to get pictures. By the time I got out of the truck, though, we were in the cloud. I waited a few minutes, but it was just getting thicker, so I continued on the way down. For a while, I could only see about a hundred feet ahead, so I was going slow. I kept having to pull over to let people by that were in a hurry. I don't know why there aren't a bunch of wrecks on that mountain. The visibility got down to about 20 feet before it started to lift. That was scary.

We got out of the clouds just before Windy Point and the rest of the drive down the mountain was uneventful. We ate in Tucson and on the way back to Phoenix, it seemed like there was lightning all around. Then it rained. It was the hardest rain I've seen since moving to Arizona 10 years ago. It rained for a long time like that. I expected it to be about 100 when we got back to Phoenix but it was still in the 70's. Seems there had been some showers there, too. I saw something that evening that I have never seen in Arizona before; a frog hopping along the road. I saw two of them. Unprecedented. You know it was wet.

Taken at Windy Point.

It was much cooler than usual the next day in the Phoenix area. It rained a little, and in the afternoon I thought I should drive out to Tortilla Flat to see if Tortilla Creek was flowing across the road. I didn't even get as far as the Ghost Town on Apache Trail, though. It must have rained very hard in the Superstition Mountains. Weekes Wash was a raging torrent.

Weekes Wash. Never imagined it could look like this. It had dropped about 2 feet by the time I got there.

Well, I'm not caught up yet, but dinner's ready. More later.

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