A trip to the Mogollon Rim

Suzanne and I drove up to the Mogollon Rim on Sunday. We went to see if we could find some fall leaves, but we found lots of other stuff, too. First, though, a word about people driving off cliffs.

I was thinking about how people might do that and realized that it probably has something to do with what I've been thinking about for a few weeks. That is, driving requires unbroken concentration on a single task for as long as you're on the road. Generally speaking, people are not good at that, especially if the task is boring or there are distractions. Anyway, I felt like I needed to say that because all those people that I made fun of for driving off cliffs probably don't deserve it, and if I drive off a cliff some day I don't want people making fun of me. I'm sure I'll have a very good excuse. OK, back to the rim.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a road trip. Once we got a few miles north of the valley, there were puffy little clouds all around, and a few somewhat ominous clouds here and there. We stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut in Payson. I've been feeling burned out on pizza lately, but that was a good pizza. It was in the low 60's in Payson.

It was another 30 mile drive to get up on the rim. Of course, I had to stop at the first scenic overlook and get a few pictures. It was windy up there, and in the mid 50's. It didn't take long for my fingers to get too stiff to put the lens cap back on. I didn't bring anything warm to wear. Silly me. Anyway, remember the clouds? I used to gripe about them to Richard. If you exposed a picture for the landscape, the clouds would be blindingly white blobs. If you tried to make the clouds look good, the landscape was almost black. Richard kept sending me info about high dynamic range images until I finally tried some software that solves this cloud problem and eventually bought it. If it hadn't been for Richard sending that info, I wouldn't have gotten any good pictures on Sunday, and I would have complained about it all week. Well, some people still might say I didn't get any good pictures, but I like them. Thanks, Richard. I'm going to illustrate, one more time, what I'm talking about. Here's the best me and Canon could do without Photomatix.

From 2008_10_05

Yucko. Here's what Canon, Photomatix, and I can do.

From 2008_10_05

Hey, you can see everything! I like that, at least for pictures like this. I took pictures at a couple or three scenic overlooks before we got to the turnoff for Woods Canyon Lake. There we found a few aspens.

From 2008_10_05

I took a few pictures of the lake, also. The pictures wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the clouds, and I couldn't have included the clouds without Photomatix. I suppose the people add some interest, also. They are also troublesome, though. In order to use Photomatix, I need to take exposure bracketed pictures. That's three pictures taken in quick succession. The Rebel is pretty fast and it takes those three pictures in less than a second, but people can move a lot in a second. I had to watch all the people in the picture and wait until they looked like they were going to be still for a second and then take the picture(s). Not easy, especially with kids. I got a few pictures in which the people aren't too blurred, though. I think this is my favorite.

From 2008_10_05

I was planning to drive further down the rim road, but it turned to dirt and it was a little too rough for the minivan (I didn't want to bounce off a cliff ;-) ), so we headed back. Of course, I had to stop at the scenic overlooks again. Suzanne got out at one of those to peek over the edge. She made me very nervous. I don't think I get that close to the edge. This picture turned out pretty good even though it isn't HDR.

From 2008_10_05

Click below to go to the album to see all of the pictures (or just watch the tiny slide show).

Hoo ha! I just noticed something funny in the HTML for that slide show. You'd probably have to be a nerd to appreciate it, though. Or a middle school student.

Odd weather

Earlier this week, the temperature was around 110. Then one day it was so windy, you could hardly see the mountains through all the dust in the air. Then it got cloudy and cooled off. The high today was only about 70. We got about an inch of rain, too. Typical rainfall for May is about 0.1 inch. Suzanne and I drove out to Canyon Lake. It was very pretty out there with the setting sun peeking through the clouds, and all the moisture in the air. I was never in the right place at the right time to get a good picture, though. Here's a few of the ones I got, though.

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First water overlook trail

I didn't feel real energetic today, so I hiked the First Water overlook trail. It's near Canyon Lake and ends at a waterfall that drops 90 feet to First Water Creek. Well, there's a waterfall if it's raining. It hasn't rained for a long time. Turns out you would be able to see the waterfall from the trail, anyway. Not unless you went over the waterfall yourself, and that would probably hurt.

I played around with taking pictures with the polarizing filter on and off. It doesn't seem to affect the quality of the pictures. I'm glad. Like Skid says, it must be the combination of the polarizer and the UV filters.

I wanted to geotag the pictures, but there is no way I can figure out where I was by looking at Google Earth. It's low resolution out there and you can barely tell where the road and the creek are. Maybe I'll go out there with my GPS some time and figure out where that trail is.

I got a picture of an eastern collared lizard today. They're very pretty. It isn't a very good picture, though. Whenever I see something like that, I stop and take a picture right away, even if it's into the sun or too dark or there's something in the way or whatever. I want to get at least one picture in case whatever it is runs away. This was a very skittish and very fast lizard. I wish I had a video of it as it ran off. It looked like it was running on its back legs. Little rocks were flying. Here are the pictures.

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Canyon Lake sunset

Date: July 16, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - 1810, 104
End - 2040, much cooler
Location: Apache Trail, near Canyon Lake
Distance hiked: About 300 feet
Elevation change: About 40 feet
The numbers:
56 Pictures taken
8 Vultures seen at one time
1 Totally awesome sunset

Ramblings: The storm clouds surrounded the valley after work today, and were closer than yesterday. Lindsey and I went out to Canyon Lake to see if we could find anything interesting. We found an awesome sunset. The clouds always look so cool around here during the monsoon rains. They also look cool in the "winter", and during spring. There aren't any clouds in June. I'm getting off track here.

I parked at the high point of the road, between the lake and Tortilla Flat, and we scrambled up a hill for a better view. It was indescribable, and my puny pictures don't even come close to capturing it. Since I can't describe it, I'll quit talking about it now.

On the way home, while we were still on the twisty mountain roads, the wind and dust hit. The mountains looked foreboding and ominous shrouded in dust. Too bad for you it was too dark for pictures. It looked like there was lightening near the house and we got rained on (just enough to make the dust stick) on the way home. Another spectacular evening in the desert.

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A hike near Canyon Lake

Lindsey, her friend Courtney, and I went for a short hike near Canyon Lake after work today. The sun had almost set by the time we got there so I didn't take many pictures. Here's one of the lake. No, my truck isn't in this picture.

 

Rainy day, calm evening

We had a rainy day today. Not very hard rain, but it kept the streets wet most of the day. The clouds were breaking up when I got home from work so I decided to drive out to Canyon Lake. There were a lot of cool clouds on the Superstitions but I couldn't get into a good position to get pictures of them. I took a few pictures around the lake and I like them, but they are mostly too dark. I set the shutter speed to 1/50 to keep them from being blurred. It was still hard to stand still enough after scrambling up a hill to get some of the pictures. The air was very calm out there and for once, there weren't any boats zipping around the lake. The surface of the lake was getting smoother. I thought I might be able to get some pictures with reflections but it was getting dark fast, too. Here's one picture of the lake. 1/3 second exposure time. No, I cannot stand that still; the camera was on a tripod.

From Canyon Lake a...

Butcher Jones

I was thinking about staying home to rest and play computer games today. It was too nice outside, though. I decided to go for a short drive and maybe to mosey down a trail a little ways. I went to Butcher Jones recreation area, next to Saguaro Lake. It has picnic tables and stuff like that. You have to pay to park there, so I drove through the other side, which goes up a large wash that empties into the lake. Yes, I'm cheap. I parked in the wash and headed for a trail that leaves the picnic area and follows the lake shore. Click below to open a new window with the pictures.

Saguaro_Lake_2007_01_07

The first picture is another one of those memorials you see a lot of in the desert. Somebody's pet, I guess.

The next picture shows how the trail follows the lake shore. In the next picture, the mountain to the left is Stewart Mountain. You can see the Superstition mountains in the background of the next two pictures.

In the picture of Four Peaks, the water is really that color. When the wind covers the water with ripples, the water reflects the sky. The sky is usually deep blue here, so the water looks that way, too. In order to head off the people that are going the say that the sky doesn't look deep blue in the picture, let me explain that the sky is lighter on the horizon. Such facts may not be obvious to those living in muggy, almost perpetually cloudy areas of the country.

I wandered along that trail for quite a while. I calculated that I should turn around by 3:30 in order to get back to the truck before sunset. Then I decided that I would be able to find my way back to the truck in the dark. Then at 3:40 I remembered seeing a sign that said the gate would be closed at sunset. I started to hurry back and almost right away I lost the trail. I wasn't lost. The trail was. I went in the direction I wanted to go and the trail found me again. I walked as fast as I could all the way back. Man, my legs are tired and my feet ache now.

I took the last picture on the way back. It looks so picturesque and peaceful there. I don't know if I'll hike there again, though. On the way out I passed small groups of people fishing. On the way back, each place that had had people fishing now had fresh trash scattered around. Some of it was even hung in trees. Some people are such clods. I'll stick to hiking off-trail and going places that most people don't.