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

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

Snow on Four Peaks

That's what got me distracted from what I was doing. I was headed for Picketpost Mountain. As soon as I got out of the neighborhood, though, I saw that Four Peaks had some snow on it. I decided to go get some pictures of that instead. I went out Bush Highway and stopped at a place I had stopped about 8 years ago.

There are lots of large boulders out here.

The first time I was out there was in late spring. It was hot. It was also a banner year for gnats. I was hoping to get some pictures of Saguaro Lake. I climbed up a hill expecting to be able to see the lake from the top. Silly me. I saw another hill. I clambered down and then up the next hill, expecting to see the lake. Silly me. By then I was very hot, very sweaty, and sick and tired of *!$#&^@ gnats so I left. I hadn't parked there since, until Sunday.

One more hill and I'll be able to see Four Peaks.

I think it was in the 50's this time, and there was a gentle breeze, and no bugs. I planned a route to take me closer to the lake instead of heading for the peak of the nearest hill. I stopped to take lots of pictures, so I didn't get near as tired. It was a much more pleasant experience.

There are lots of interesting rocks and piles of rocks out there.

I came over a hill with a nice view of the lake and the mountain. The breeze had stirred up small ripples on the lake so it did a good job of reflecting the blue sky. By the time I got up there, though, clouds had moved in around Four Peaks.

People are sometimes amazed at how blue the water is in the lakes around here. They ask me if I've edited my pictures. Well, it isn't really that blue, but I don't edit the pictures. Under the right conditions it reflects the blue sky and looks really nice. Otherwise, it looks like brown lake water.

I wandered around for a while up there, taking pictures. I wasn't moving enough to stay warm in the breeze, though. I ambled back towards the truck, trying to get some good pictures of rocks along the way. I always say that being artistic is not my objective, but sometimes I wish I knew how to take a really interesting picture of a rock.

There are a couple of things about this picture that annoy me, but overall I like it.

I found a good spot to get a picture of the Stewart Mountain dam.

Never did get a good picture of Four Peaks.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_12_16

A view of Saguaro Lake

Last weekend, when I was looking at Saguaro Lake in the distance, I was thinking that I should go to the top of the cliffs that overlook the lake again. So that's what I did yesterday.

A picture from last Sunday, showing the cliffs looming over the lake.

The last time I was up there, I went to a spot that looked like it would be easy to get to. This time, I decided I would try to get to the highest spot on the cliffs, no matter how far I had to walk or how many pointless ups and downs I had to traverse. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. With all the flowers along the way, the hum of honey bees was almost a roar.

I saw a few Mexican gold poppies along the way.

A buckhorn cholla with lots of flowers.

Almost to the final climb. Looks like solid rock for part of the way.

It is solid rock.

There's a very nice view of the lake from up there. There weren't any loud boats displaying their rooster tails, which seemed strange. There was one very fast boat but all the rest just seemed to be run-of-the-mill family boats. It was quiet for such a busy lake.

Saguaro Lake, with the Goldfield Mountains in the background.

Looking southeast.

A fishing pier 340 feet below. I couldn't get closer than 6 feet from the edge. Too scary.

I got out there early enough that I didn't have to race sunset back to the truck. I sat and enjoyed the view for a while. When I was about to leave, a red tailed hawk flew by. I had the same problem getting pictures of it as I do with Richard's planes. With the lens zoomed in, the depth of field is very narrow. Between focusing and taking the picture, the subject moves out of focus. I only got one picture of the hawk that's in focus, when it was going directly overhead. I'm glad the sky was clear so the exposure turned out OK.

A red tailed hawk.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_04_24

Wandering in the desert

I had trouble deciding where to go on Sunday. I wanted to go someplace different, but I didn't want to drive a long way. I decided to wander around just west of Saguaro Lake. I had been to a couple of places in that area and decided to go to a place I hadn't seen back behind the mountains.

The buckhorn cholla flowers are coming out.

I also wanted to go someplace quiet, and I thought I'd be able to get away from the road noise back there. I did manage to get away from the road noise, but there was other noise I'd forgotten about. Boats. I could hear them for most of the time I was out there.

Teddy bear cholla flower.

I wandered around trying to go in a generally westerly direction. There are a lot of horse trails out there. I would follow them for a while, until I decided they weren't going the direction I wanted, then I'd follow the path of least resistance, then I would meet up with a horse trail, etc.

A horse trail.

Some of you might be wondering what makes them horse trails and not just hiking trails. No, it isn't the horse dodo on them. You find that on a lot of hiking trails, but that doesn't make them horse trails. Horse trails seem to be used almost exclusively by horses. So now you curious people are wondering how I know there aren't many people walking on the horse trails. The rest of you have gone on the the pictures or have dozed off in your recliner and now have drool running down your right cheek. Anyway, I know that not many people walk on these trails because people are sloppy. They couldn't color in the lines when they were kids and they refuse to do it now but now they call it freedom of expression instead of lack of skill. They continually wander off the edges of trails and trample the plants and kick the rocks out of the way and their trails get wider and wider and the edge is always diffuse and poorly defined. Horse trails, on the other hand, are narrow with sharply defined edges. In places the cut a foot into the dirt but they don't get any wider. I don't know why horses do that. Maybe a horse doesn't get distracted by the beautiful scenery surrounding it, which would be a shame. Maybe it doesn't dare offend its master by straying from the designated path, which would also be a shame. I'm sure there are good reasons for the people's sloppiness, and we would be a pretty dull species without that.

Ocotillo flowers.

Speaking of dull, that reminds me of my next rant. Remember the boats? These aren't fishing boats (though that might be the story fed to the wives) or ski boats (at least not as used by any serious skiers). They sound like they have very large engines and no mufflers. Their roar echoes through the canyons around the lakes for miles in every direction. As I walked along listening, I noticed that they would roar for 20 seconds or so and then die down. Does it take them that long to cross the lake, and they have to slow down to turn? I couldn't see the lake, so I didn't know. In between admiring flowers, cacti, rocks, mountains, etc., I kept getting back to thinking about the loud boats. I decided that the boats must be owned by young males and that they owed their existence entirely to testosterone. The guys were trying to impress the girls by having the biggest, loudest boat. Some of you will argue that girls don't like loud boats, and I agree that that is probably true. What girls do like is guys with money. Unfortunately, they are often duped into believing that guys who spend a huge wad of money on something as frivolous as a muscle car or a loud boat has a lot of money. They don't wake up to the truth until one or two babies later when Bubba is spending half his paycheck on a new chrome plated air clean for his baby (the car). Also, I've always kind of suspected that the guys were trying to compensate for some deficiency in their manhood. That's what was so funny when I finally got to a spot with a good view of the lake. I could watch the roaring boats strut their stuff. They would get lined up at one end of the lake. They must use a water jet for thrust, and the direction of the water jet can be changed; side to side to steer, and up and down to adjust trim. These guys would adjust the trim so the water jet was shooting into the air. I guess that doesn't leave them with much steering control, and that's why they have to slow down after crossing the lake. Anyway, they make a huge rooster tail as they cross the lake. The analogies are hilarious, but this is a family friendly blog so I won't go into details.

Deep voice (trying to impress): "Man, that water's cold."
Deeper voice: "Yeah, and deep, too."

There are lots of brittlebush flowers.

Near the beginning of the hike, I decided that I didn't want to cross a ridge between me and where I wanted to go, especially after I saw a swarm of bees along the top (there have been lots of killer bee attacks in the valley this year). I wound up walking along that ridge, though. The sun had gotten low enough that it wasn't hot by then, and the breeze up there felt wonderful. It was a pleasant stroll through the desert, and near the end I found the route I should have taken to get where I wanted. Next time.

2010_04_18

Highest spot near Canyon Lake

A few days ago I had a picture of a mountain near Canyon Lake on my blog, and I said I was going to climb it. After sitting in a car for most of Saturday, I was ready to go climbing on Sunday. As you probably know, though, I don't climb. It was a hike up the side of a mountain.

The mountain doesn't seem to have a name. I thought it was big enough that it should have, but I can't find a name anywhere. So I was thinking that after I climbed it, I should name it after me. Then people would remember it, because it would be such a funny sounding name for a mountain.

I'm going to climb that.

I studied the pictures I had taken, and I studied Google Earth, and as I climbed I confirmed my belief that pictures from a distance and Google Earth are no way to plan a climb/hike. It looked like I could walk along that ridge to the mountain, then just go up the side. If that side was too steep, I would just need to go around about 70 degrees counter clockwise, and the climb would be easy.

Ha ha.

I encountered a pile of rocks along the ridge and decided to go around instead of over. Good thing. The other side was steep.

Along the ridge there were very few signs of people. Just one or two gun shells. No beer cans. No cigarette butts. Not even a granola bar wrapper. I was beginning to think that very few people had been up this way when I came across a cairn.

This is usually evidence of lots of people having passed this way.

There was a flat, rock-free spot nearby. I thought maybe somebody had camped there and built a cairn out of boredom. There was no fire ring, though, and no trash, and the saguaros in the area hadn't been shot up. Hmm, these might be real hikers, which means they might have already named the mountain.

Next, I found a really big cairn. My water bottle is on it for scale.

I was almost to the mountain now. The ridge was narrow for the last little bit. That's one of those things you can't see in pictures or Google Earth. Should I go over or around? It looked like going around would involve a lot of ups and downs, so I decided to go over.

A narrow ridge just before the mountain.

Another cairn at the ridge. Going over seems to be the popular route.

Cairn at the other end of the narrow ridge.

As soon as I was on the other end of the ridge, I could see that I wouldn't be going straight up the mountain there. It was steep, and there were small cliffs here and there. So I followed the cairns. Sometimes I could see the next one from where I was. Sometimes there was a little bit of a path worn in the side of the mountain. A lot of times I just went the only way I could and would stumble across the next cairn. It seemed like the trail was just going around the mountain and not up, but maybe that was necessary.

I'm not gaining altitude very fast, but I'm about to loose sight of the ridge.

A rocky peak near the mountain I'm climbing.

As I was going around the mountain, near an adjacent peak, I was going back and forth in one spot trying to find a way around a small cliff. I didn't want to go above it because that was too dangerous. It didn't look like I could get up the other side if I went below it. As I moved around for different viewpoints I stepped off a large rock on the downhill side. It was a fair drop but shouldn't have been a problem. I guess my joints aren't as sturdy as they used to be, though. There was a twinge in my right knee. I ignored it until I took a step and it hurt again. It wasn't bad, just bad enough to make me limp a little, which is not a good thing on the side of a mountain. It seemed to hurt most going downhill. It seemed silly to go uphill when it was going to hurt coming back down.

Taking pictures, deciding what to do.

By now I had figured out how to get around the bottom of the cliff. I decided to see what it felt like going across. It didn't feel good, so I sat down to take some pictures and decide what to do. It seemed a shame to come so far and then turn back. It would be a bigger shame to have to push that 911 button, though. I looked up. The top didn't look far away, but you can never tell from the side of a mountain. I got out my Magellan. I was 500 feet east of the summit, and 100 feet below it. Much closer than I thought. I stood up and thought about the flannel shirt in the back seat of my truck. I meant to put it in my backpack when the weather cooled off a couple of weeks ago, but kept forgetting. It wouldn't be good to be up here at night without it. I took a few steps uphill. It felt fine. I walked back down. Still fine. I decided to go for the top. The more I walked, the better my knee felt.

The Rolls Off Highway Vehicle Area, as viewed from my rest stop.

The trail continued to a ridge on the north side of the mountain that made a gentle slope up to the top. As I approached the ridge, I could hear the wind that was coming up the other side hissing through the needles of saguaros along the ridge. When I reached the ridge, I felt like I was already at the top. The last few feet were just a technicality.

Saguaro Lake as seen from the ridge on the north side.

Saguaro Lake, with Stewart Mountain behind it, and the cairn at the top. I added a rock.

Canyon Lake is also visible from the summit.

The Superstition Mountains and Weaver's Needle.

Apache Trail winding its way down to Canyon Lake.

Down there is one of my favorite parts of Bulldog Canyon.

The Rolls.

I wandered around on top for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the view in all directions. I got another bottle of water out of my backpack and found a peanut butter food bar while I was in there. Thanks, Lauren! It was getting late and I had to start down. I wanted to get back to the narrow ridge on the south side of the mountain before sunset. I had trouble finding the cairns on the way up. They would be impossible to find in the dark. Oh, BTW, I decided it wouldn't be right for me to name the mountain when I had nothing to do with the trail that led to the peak.

Find the green roof of the scenic overlook pullout!

This may be a skeleton by the next time I'm up here.

This is what the trail looks like. Look hard. Use your imagination.

Shadows are getting long.

My knee didn't bother me at all on the way down. Praise the Lord. When I first got on the steep side of the mountain, I lost the trail. Everywhere I looked seemed too steep to descend or cross. I don't think GPS crumbs would help in that situation. If your position is off by 20 or 30 feet, that could be 60 feet in elevation, which is a completely different place. I finally found my way back to the spot where I sat deciding whether or not to go on. There seemed to be several ways down from there, but experience told me that if I didn't go back the way I came, I'd probably be spending the night out in the desert. From that point on the cairns seemed to be easier to find. I only lost the trail twice and it only mattered once. It was just before I got to the narrow ridge. I went back and forth and up and down trying to find the best path back to the ridge. There was a steep drop off between me and the ridge that complicated things. Going below it would be difficult and maybe even impossible, because I couldn't see the whole route. I couldn't remember going above it on the way up but that's probably because I didn't look in that direction. I was looking for cairns, or following the trail. I don't like going above those cliffs because if I fall and slide or roll a little ways, I would go over the cliff. That happened to an experienced hiker in the Superstitions a few months ago. He broke a femur among other bones, but he lived. Anyway, I finally decided the only possible route was above it. As soon as I got over the rise on the other side, I recognized the path to the ridge. A few minutes later the sun sank behind the Goldfield Mountains to the west. I was as good as down, though. The rest of the hike was easy going. I missed a turn once but it was no biggy taking a shortcut to where I was supposed to be. I was back to the truck before I needed a flashlight.

Whew.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2009_10_11