Almost...

I tried to get to the top of another ridge in Bulldog Canyon this afternoon. I came to some cliffs that I couldn't get past, though. Still, it was fun and the scenery was spectacular, as usual.

As soon as I got out of the truck I knew why I had to be there. It was silent. No cars, no air conditioners, no planes (though a few flew over later), to TVs, no dogs barking, no dogs barking, no dogs barking. I don't like barking dogs. There were not any out there. None.

There were a lot of birds hanging around the puddles from last weeks storms. I also managed to get some pictures of a lizard, the first with my new camera. I don't have a telephoto lens yet, so the lizards run away before I get close enough. Except for this one.

There were a few puffy little clouds around when I got out there. Of course, I had to include them in the pictures. Here is a picture exposed for the mountains. The clouds look washed out.

Here it is exposed for the clouds. The mountains are dark.

Here's a pseudo HDR image produced from a single RAW image file.

It looks pretty good, though I have noticed something about the HDR images that is annoying (but I'm not going to tell you what).

I also saw a few mushrooms (they're springing up all over town after the rain). I'll have to work on most of the pictures tomorrow. Click below to see a few of them for now.

BC_2008_09_01

House lizard

On several occasions, while taking out the trash, I've caught a glimpse of a sizable lizard on the side of the house. It always runs under a bougainvillea, so I never got a good look at it, until today. I saw it go through a drainage hole in the fence to the front yard. I sneaked around there with the camera and got a few pictures before it r-u-n-o-f-t; runoft (that's one of my favorite parts of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou"). Here are some pictures.

Lizard_2008_08_10

Saguaro flowers

It was unusually cool today. When I got home, the neighborhood smelled like creosote bushes after rain. I love that smell. I decided to go out to the end of Meridian road so I could smell it better. Turns out it didn't rain as much out there. I got a few pictures of saguaro flowers, though.

I got pictures of other stuff, too. Here's a picture of a couple of cholla cacti. There's a bird nest in the one on the right. It all looks like one cholla at first, but if you look closer you will see that the one on the left is a hanging fruit cholla and the one on the right is a teddy bear cholla. The hanging fruit is a dead giveaway, but you will also notice that the two varieties branch differently.

Now that you know how to tell them apart, which is this? There are a couple of staghorn cholla in the picture, too.

I came across something that at first I thought was fungus. Then I started to wonder if it was one of those alien pod thingies. See if you can tell what it is.

Something has been digging a lot of holes out there lately. Here's one. This is an easily accessible area, so notice the bottle shards and .22 shells all over the place.

And, finally, here are all the pictures.

Meridian_2008_05_13

A long hike

There is a canyon in Bulldog Canyon OHV area that I've tried to get to the end of on several occasions. I made another attempt yesterday. I took extra water. I took food. I started early (2 pm). I didn't make it. The further I went, the rougher the terrain got. I was accumulating scrapes, bruises, thorns, and rocks in my shoes. It turns out that I didn't take enough water, either. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I stood on a rock and it rolled out from under me? I was careful about that this time. I didn't think I had to be careful about rocks the size of a Buick, though, especially when half of it is embedded in the side of a wash. I had to climb over one of those to get out of a wash. I found a foothold and was on my way up when the part my foot was on broke off. What a surprise. I found a plant with lots of thorns (see below) when I landed on my side on the ground. I also have matching bruises on my shins now. I saw lots of cool stuff, though, and planned my route for the next attempt.

The forecast said sunny and windy. Bulldog Canyon was overcast and calm, though. Temperature was around 80, so it was comfortable.

Here's a bush I never really noticed before. It's covered with flowers now, and they are very fragrant. It smells like cheap cologne. The first time I smelled it, I stopped and was looking all around for a rhinestone cowboy. I couldn't believe that smell could be natural.

I saw a lot of these lizards. I think it's a whiptail of some sort, but I can't figure it out for sure. I didn't see them until they were running to hide from me, so I didn't get any good pictures.

I've been close to this cave a couple of times. Maybe next time I'm out there I'll hike on up to it.

These plants cover the desert now. They are everywhere. I used to think that they made me itch, but yesterday I discovered they are covered with thorns. At least the thorns come out easily. See the full set of pictures for a close up of the thorns.

On the way back to the truck, I followed a wash for a long way. I did that because I was tired of those thorny plants and going up and down and up and down and up and down... My ankles were actually tired from the rough terrain. I followed it too far, though, and came out close to the Salt River, which is further north than I wanted to be.

From there, I headed in the direction of the truck. I wound up on top of a large plateau. I spotted the truck on the other side of a canyon with veritical sides and crawling with rattlesnakes.

The snake was a nice surprise. It gave me a shot of adrenalin that got me the rest of the way back to the truck. I posted a video of the snake yesterday.

Click here to see all of the pictures.

BC_2008_04_19

Two more videos from Boulder Canyon

The first video is a short one of a zebra-tailed lizard demonstrating an "explosive burst of speed". That's why I haven't been able to catch one waving his tail, yet.

Next is a video of the eastern collared lizard. The camera shakes a lot, though, for several reasons. I was trying to sneak up on it, so I was walking very slowly, so I was on one foot a lot of the time. The wind kept blowing me around. Also, I had to keep looking down to see where I could put my feet, and then the camera would point in the wrong direction. At one point in the video I zoom out far enough that you can see how long the lizard's tail is. It's really long. Looks like the tail is about 150% as long as its body.

First look at Boulder Canyon Trail

As you approach Canyon Lake from the west, you can see a trail going up a mountainside on the far side of the lake. I've been looking at that trail for years and saying I'm going to hike it some day. I finally got tired of hearing me say that and today I went out there and checked it out. It's a great trail. It's heavily traveled, so it's wide enough to hike with shorts if you want to (you won't be getting cholla balls embedded the the backs of your legs).

It was in the low 80's while I was out there, and very windy. I had to use the chin strap on my hat. I was out there in the early afternoon, so I had to have my hat on. I spent 4 hours on the trail. A lot of that time was spent taking pictures and movies (about 150 pictures and 5 movies). It's taken me a couple of hours to decide which pictures to put on the web album, geotag them, etc. The geotags may not be very accurate. The trail is in a low resolution area of Google Earth. It isn't possible to tell where the trail is on the map.

I think I hiked about 3 miles. It felt like 6. My legs are tired and my feet hurt. I'd be out there again tomorrow if it weren't for work, though. The views are spectacular. I saw dozens of lizards. One of them is an Eastern Collared lizard. It's the most beautiful shades of blue, yellow, aqua, etc. Suzanne even thinks it's pretty, and she used to cover her face whenever a picture of a lizard came up on the computer screen.

I tried to get a movie of a zebra-tailed lizard. They run a little and when they stop, they wave their tail back and forth in the air. I never caught one waving his tail, though.

I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow to add the movies to the blog. It's getting late and I'm tired and it might take hours to upload the video. I'll try to identify the rest of the lizards tomorrow, too.

There were a lot of people on the trail. I saw at least 10. Most of them looked like they weren't having as much fun as me, though.

Bldr_cnyn_trl_2008_03_30

Lizard hunt

Date: August 2, 2007
Time and temperature: Start - 1754, 94
End - 1921, 89
Location: Near the Massacre Grounds trail head
Distance hiked: Maybe half a mile
Elevation change: Not much
The numbers:
62 Pictures taken
10 Lizards spotted
3 Lizards photographed
3 Millipedes seen
3 Chipmunk attacks
0 Broken ankles!
1 Bat seen
1 Tarantula seen

Ramblings: I've gotten almost no pictures of lizards over the past year, despite having a camera that can really zoom in on them. I used to see lizards hanging out all the time, but lately they seen to run hide the minute they see me. Then I realized that the ones I used to get pictures of were always near a well-traveled trail. I guess they get used to people walking by. So I headed for the Massacre Grounds trail.

I haven't been to that trail for a couple of years. It hasn't changed much. I could tell that there had been some heavy rains out there recently. I expected to find water in an old stock tank near the parking lot. I was surprised to find the water covered with some plant.

I was able to get pictures of almost every lizard I saw while on the trail. Then I wandered off the trail and watched as lizards scurried under bushes or rocks.

As I was driving out, I saw a tarantula crossing the road. I'm not used to seeing them until about October.

Lizard hunt