To the Mule Ears

I don't know if that's what it's really called. It reminds me of Mule Ear Peaks in Big Bend National Park, so that's what I call it. It's one of those places I've been meaning to hike out to for a few years. You can see it as you approach Canyon Lake on Apache Trail. Just last year I found myself very close to it and realized it wouldn't be very difficult to get to.

My destination. It was a dusty day.

I saw some Iron Cross Blister beetles near the beginning of the hike.

The wind had been blowing for a couple of days so the air was kind of dusty. It was cool and the wind would keep the gnats away, so I went hiking despite the dust. Between the dust and being out there in the middle of the day (I had no idea how long it would take, so I started early), the pictures aren't very good.

It rained just enough to make some small puddles out here the night before.

There was a faint trail out there the last time I had been there. It seemed better defined now, and there were more cairns. The trail seemed to go where I was going most of the time. I stayed on it because the grass was downtrodden there. That grass is almost as annoying as gnats. I had my gaiters on but the seeds still worked their way through my shoes. I had to stop three times to take my shoes off and remove seeds. It's really aggravating to have something jabbing you in the foot with every step.

There is a trail all the way up to the far side (the side you can't see from Apache Trial) of the Mule Ears. It's possible to climb up to the saddle between the peaks from the far side. It's about a 10 foot climb. I'm sure I could have done it but since a slip could have been disastrous, I didn't.

A pile of rocks in the saddle. I didn't climb up there.

Four Peaks through the dust.

The wind was blowing so hard, I thought my exposure-bracketed photos might not be combinable into HDRIs. Photomatix is pretty amazing at lining things up, though.

Weaver's Needle is usually easy to see from this area, but not this day.

One reason I wasn't in any hurry to hike out to the Mule Ears is because you can't get pictures of something like that when you get close to it. I wanted to do it just so I could say I had been there. Well, that's out of the way now. As expected, I saw some other things I want to look into the next time I'm out there. It sure is nice having such a large area to explore so close to home.

Click below for all of the pictures.

2014_04_26

A different view of Canyon Lake

I've always wanted to see what Canyon Lake looks like further upstream. I looked into renting a boat but that is outrageously expensive. I think about buying a kayak but I worry that the lake might be much larger from the perspective of a kayaker. Then there's the obvious solution; hike. I've looked at that area on maps and Google Earth, and there's even what looks like a road going where I want to go. I've hiked along that road two or three times but always turned back before I got very far because of heat, approaching darkness, or gnats. Well, this is another one of those "while I can" hikes, and the weather is perfect this time of year, so off I went.

It still hasn't dried up completely since the last rain.

I always take lots of pictures of this mountain when I'm in this area.

I figured I would follow the road as far as it went, and then see if I could get to the top of a nearby hill that should overlook that part of the lake. It turns out that it really is a road. At least I think it might be. It's very lightly traveled. It had one set of recent tire tracks when I was out there. They were so fresh, I thought I might find a truck at the end of the road.

Here's a saguaro and that mountain.

Before I even got to the end of the road, I started to worry about how late it was getting. I couldn't turn back, though. I had flashlights I could use on the way back if I had to. When I got to the end of the road I could see that it would be easy to get to the top of the hill that was my destination. As I was going up the hill (a gentle slope with only minor obstructions), I came across a freshly chewed prickly pear pad. I figured that meant that there were javelinas nearby. A few steps later I was walking around a prickly pear when a dead paloverde branch tried to push me into the prickly pear. I pushed back and the branch snapped with a loud crack. That set off the javelinas that had been standing quietly about 100 feet from me. They snorted and stomped and snorted and stomped away down a ravine. All but one, that is, and it hung around a few seconds so I could get a picture. Grunting javelinas sound a lot like guys in their 20's that are trying to sound like cave men. The next time I see some I think I'll grunt like they do and see what happens. Some javelinas, that is. Hmm, maybe they'll feel challenged and charge me.

Javelina wondering what all the fuss is about.

I went up the side of the hill that didn't have a view of the lake, but the view was impressive. I was distracted by it for a while before I got over the top of the hill.

A nice view before I reached my destination.

At last I got to the top of the hill and the view of the lake was as impressive as I had imagined it might be for the past 5 years.

A view of Canyon Lake that few people see. No, boaters don't see it, because they don't climb this hill.

The view is also very impressive to the north of the lake.

The road.

I wanted to hurry on the way back. The sun officially set about 20 minutes before I got back to the truck. I couldn't hurry much, though. I've slipped a couple of times in the past on that road. By the time I got to the steep downhill parts during this hike my legs were pretty tired, so I was moving kind of slow. It was 4.9 miles round trip, with about 1200 feet of ups and downs. The views were well worth the hike but next time I might see if I can drive on that road. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_12_14

While I can

My left ankle has been bothering me for the past few years. In the big scheme of things, it's a very minor issue. It currently limits my hikes to about 5 or 6 miles. It doesn't bother me much while I'm hiking, but the next day it may be very difficult to walk. Lately it has gotten me to thinking about some hikes I've been on in the past 10 years that I should not do now. Then I got to thinking about hikes I could do now that I may not be able to do in a few short years. I'd better do them now.

Going up to that peak is one of those "some day" hikes.

A couple of weeks ago, I had hiked off-trail near Fish Creek Hill. I turned back when the sun started getting low, but continuing to the top of a hill where I turned back was something I wanted to do "some day". I decided I had better do it while I could. It's a 1.3 mile hike to the start of the climb, then a climb of about 350 feet in 0.3 mile. That's not much of a climb, and the hike before it doesn't have a whole lot of ups and downs. Various things have kept me from hiking lately, though, so I'm not in top shape.

Based on what I had seen the last time I was out there, I was sure that the view from the top would be worth the climb.

It seemed like I had been hiking for a long time by the time I got to the start of the climb. I knew I was going to be very tired by the time I got to the top. I had to go, though. I allowed myself to believe that the false summit I saw from the base was my actual destination. The climb is only moderately steep.

This gives you an idea how steep the climb was. Unfortunately, saguaros are rare in this area so I don't know if I had my camera level for any of the pictures.

I wonder if it's possible to get on those mountains back there.

I decided that if my legs were too wobbly on the way down, there were plenty of agave and sotol flower stalks around to use as walking sticks. I was determined to make it to the top. When I finally reached the top and saw the view, I felt that it was well worth the effort. There are some beautiful sights as you drive along Apache Trail, but very few people get to see what I was looking at.

My first view from the summit. That's Tortilla Creek on the left.

After the clouds rearranged themselves.

Canyon Lake is 5.7 miles away. Stewart Mountain, on the right, is 13.5 miles away.

The ridge in the foreground is the top of the hill I'm on. I didn't walk along there. Maybe I should. Soon.

Getting back down was easier than I thought it would be, and the walk back to the truck wasn't so bad, either. I sat down a couple of times to get grass seeds out of my shoes and didn't want to get back up, though. I could still walk the next day, too.

I drove almost a mile along FR 213 to get to the start of the hike. The first quarter mile of that drive is *extremely* rough. There are parts where you feel like the truck is going up at a 60 degree angle, though I'm sure it can't really be that bad. You have to creep along at about half a mile an hour and choose your path very carefully. The road is narrow but much smoother and less steep the rest of the way. Well, it used to be. I was just about to my parking spot for this hike when I encountered some hikers walking back to the parking lot at Apache Trail. They warned me that the road gets pretty gnarly up ahead. It must have gotten washed out by some storms during the past year. Remember the MCSO helicopter that buzzed me several times the last time I was out here? Well, now I'm wondering if maybe somebody had rolled their vehicle further out that road. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_11_17

A roudabout route to a familiar trail

Remember me saying that I would go down there some day?

On my way to climb that hill that was vertical on one side last weekend, I saw that a trail went down a draw next to it. That's where I went on Monday. On Google Earth, it looked like a trail might go all the way down to First Water Creek. I didn't see how, though, since parts of the route seemed vertical. Well, I've been there now and I know that you can't use that route to get to First Water Creek without a rope.

A view along the way.

I was in the shade for a significant part of the hike, which was really nice. It was pretty warm that day. Several times on uphill stretches I had to stop and stand there for a while just to cool off. Not to catch my breath, which is my usual reason for stopping, or to rest my legs. I was getting uncomfortably hot. I carry enough water that I can soak myself if I have to. That is extremely effective when the dew point is about 80 degrees below the current temperature. I didn't have to, though, because I was able to cool off by standing still.

I took this for something to do while at one of my cooling-off stops. I was standing in the shade of a saguaro.

I was following cairns and a rough trail. I suddenly found myself on a well-worn trail and as soon as I stepped on it, I realized that I was almost at the exact spot where Lauren's friend Eric had stood too close to an ant mount while taking a picture of the big ants. That's how I know they hurt when they sting. Eric yelped.

Eric's ants. If he still reads my blog, I'm sure this brings back fond memories. Or maybe painful memories.

The well-worn trail is the First Water Creek overlook trail. It's a relatively flat trail that has some nice views of Canyon Lake and Four Peaks, and you don't feel like you have to hold onto the rock with your toes while you take pictures. I haven't been on that trail for a while because I've already been there several times. I'm glad I found myself on it again, though. There is some very nice scenery along there.

I took a bunch of pictures of Canyon Lake and Four Peaks again.

Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_06_17

Just for pictures

I wanted to try to get some nice pictures of Canyon Lake with Four Peaks in the background. There are lots of places just off Apache trail where there is a view of both. I decided to hike to the top of a hill next to First Water Creek that I've been thinking I should climb for a couple of weeks. It seemed like there would be a good view from there and the slope leading up to the top didn't look very steep in some of my pictures of it.

I'm going to that dark-colored ridge on the left. It looks easy from here.

I've seen cairns out there before but they never seemed to go where I was going. On this day though, they led all the way to my destination. The trail split at the base of the hill. One went up and it looks like the other might go all the way down to First water Creek. I'll have to follow that some other day. Anyway, I went up and it turned out to be much steeper than I thought it would be. I had to stop frequently to catch my breath.

There were fence-building materials at the base of the hill.

In the recent past I've made videos as I approached a cliff or someplace with a potentially interesting view. I kind of wish I had done that as I topped this ridge. On the other hand, it would have been embarrassing if you heard me scream like a little girl. The top of the ridge is 5 or 6 feet wide and the other side appears to be almost vertical for at least 400 feet. Maybe the trails were made by base jumpers.

The view of the lake and Four Peaks was pretty good from the top.

I stayed up there for about 15 minutes taking pictures. I wanted to take a 360 panorama but there was no way I was going to balance on that ridge and turn a full circle while looking through a viewfinder. I managed to get a 180 without moving my feet. My toes kept going to sleep because I was afraid to move my feet, even while I was sitting down. My toes were also achy from trying to hold on to the rock through my shoes. I was not comfortable up there.

I took a bunch of regular pictures and a bunch of HDRIs. When I got home, I processed the HDRIs several different ways, trying to find what looked best. I couldn't decide. Rather than trying to decide which pictures to upload to a web album, I just uploaded all versions of all of them and asked the world which ones look best. So far, I've heard back from one person who said she likes a couple of the pictures that I probably wouldn't have even uploaded if I was being choosy (some random rocks and a stick). *Sigh.*

Lately, I have also been uploading a screenshot of my hiking tracks shown in Google Earth, showing an elevation profile. Google Earth is strangely confused about this elevation profile, though. It shows the peak of the hill as being much lower than the saddle I went through to get to it. I was looking down on the saddle from the ridge. Endomondo seems to show the elevations correctly. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2013_06_14

Where I meant to go last time

I made it to the place I intended to go that day that I got distracted by a balanced rock. It was prettier and more interesting than I thought it would be. It wasn't as hot as I was afraid it would be, either. 97 when I got in the truck after sunset. I forgot to look at the thermometer earlier. It was dead calm most of the time. The most amazing thing was that I did not see or hear a single gnat the whole time. Hallelujah.

It was pretty right from the beginning.

See that truck that is so plain it stands out? I saw another one exactly like it as I was driving home. Play Twilight Zone music here. I guess it could have been the same one if the guy was just driving back and forth and back and forth on Apache Trail.

This area has a LOT of these round rocks. The don't get that way from weathering. They form that way.

I found a bunch of junk like batteries, a flashlight, a convex mirror, a bottle of salad dressing, etc. around this bag from the "International Conference on Design and Construction of Deep Foundations". Odd.

I just kind of wandered around out there. I would see someplace that might be interesting and head over there but get distracted by something else and take a side trip, and so on and so forth.

A picture of my wanderings.

There was a ridge to the south that I wasn't even looking at because it seemed much higher than I wanted to climb. As I got closer to it, though, I kept seeing signs of a faint trail. No cairns, just places without grass that should have had grass. Also narrow paths where the thin veneer of desert soil had been damaged by careless footsteps and then washed away in a rainstorm to expose the solid rock beneath it. I had seen so much strange stuff already, I had to follow it to see what else there was. As I approached the top of the ridge I realized that the path I was currently following was actually an ant trail. Yes, those big red ants actually clear vegetation from their heavily used paths. Fortunately it was getting to be late in the day and most of the ants had returned to the mound, so I didn't have to try too hard to not step on them. Well, they've never bitten me, so I don't want to step on them.

I had a nice view of Canyon Lake and Four Peaks.

I took a lot of pictures of this view. You can tell that the sun is getting low.

As I approached the top of the ridge, I got excited like I always do about what the view might be like from up there. I topped the ridge and, lo and behold, there was ... Apache Trail. Oh well. I was catching my breath and looking around when I spotted a structure of some sort.

My first thought was "swing set" but I quickly ruled that out. Then I wondered if it was some sort of mining contraption.

I took a picture of it and started to move to my left to get it from a different angle. A person that has been hiking in the desert for a few years does not move his feet without looking first. Good thing. I was standing next to a very deep hole.

I guess I should have taken an HDRI. There's a ladder down there. I couldn't seem the bottom. Well, I just couldn't get very close to the edge. This is about 7 feet long by 2 feet wide.

I hung around for a few minutes up there enjoying the view, then had to hurry back to the truck before it got dark. Yes, I'm sure there's a faint trail now. Maybe made by the same person making repeated trips, and he doesn't want to be followed (no cairns). He needs to learn how to walk more carefully, though. Click below for all of the pictures.

2013_06_04

Across the road again

I went back out to the spot near Canyon Lake that I had explored for the first time last week. I was thinking that I would hike down to First Water Creek. Silly me. When I got to the point where I started descending to the creek, it was much steeper and much further than it looked from the top of that mountain / big hill.

It's a scenic area.

Instead of going down to the creek, I wound up going around the mountain. I prefer to call it a mountain because it sounds more impressive to say that I climbed a mountain after work. If you tell somebody you climbed a hill, what are they going to say besides "Big whoop"? Anyway, I was hoping that I would be able to make it all the way round and not have to backtrack.

A stick and a saguaro.

I thought I smelled cigar smoke when I was about 3/4 of the way around. I smelled it all the way back to the truck. On the drive home it seemed that Phoenix had a thick brown cloud that evening despite the breeze. Then I saw the smoke rising from the ground. Turns out the fire is in Laveen, which is southwest of downtown Phoenix. It started in some mulch so it's called the Mulch fire. It's filling the valley with smoke. Visibility was bad today. You can smell the smoke just about everywhere. No, I didn't take any pictures of the smoke. I hope they get it under control soon.

2013_05_28

Someplace different near Canyon Lake

The area around Canyon Lake is quick and easy to get to (for me) and there's plenty of spots I haven't seen there yet. In less than a quarter mile, you can go from someplace familiar to someplace completely new. I parked where I've parked several times before but this time I went to the other side of the road. I've been thinking I need to go over there for a while but just never got around to it.

I'm going in that direction. Could be interesting.

It's kind of a rocky area.

It turned out to be a pretty area. There was a nice view of Canyon Lake. I didn't intend to climb to the top of anything but that's where I wound up.

A view of Canyon Lake.

I could see First Water Creek to the east. I've followed it from Canyon Lake upstream to a spot where a large tinaja blocked my progress. Based on what I had seen there, I didn't think it would be easy to get down to the creek in that area except through Black Canyon. It looked like it would be easy to get to it from where I was, though. I'll have to see if I can follow it downstream to that tinaja some day.

I think this is a chipmunk but I can't figure out what kind.

When I was close to the top, I thought it looked like I was in a good place to take a 360 degree panorama. Well, the view was good. The footing wasn't. It was rocky and slanted and was right next to a 50 foot vertical drop. I didn't have the tripod (of course), so I had to keep an eye through the view finder to keep each shot lined up with the previous ones. Rotating slowly while looking straight ahead through a view finder or rough ground next to a cliff is a little scary. The panorama came out perfect, though. The top of the hill had a nice, large flat spot on top. I took another panorama from there and it was much easier. I put that one on Panoramio.

Does this look familiar? I seem to take a lot of pictures of it.

I almost forgot to mention the gnats. That's because there weren't any. Well, I might have seen 2. The wind was blowing about 15-20 mph and I think all the gnats were grounded. I didn't even see any when I was behind rocks that blocked the wind. That was really nice. The wind also kept me cool. It was in the low 90's but I was very comfortable even when going uphill. The only downside to the wind was the dust in the air, but visibility was only a little lower than normal.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2013_05_23