Saguaros and clouds

As I drove home from work one day, I noticed how great the clouds looked. We get a lot of blah clouds this time of year, but these were fluffy and interesting looking. I changed clothes and quickly ate a snack and went out to chase clouds.

Some fluffy clouds.
I thought about what mountains I would like to have in the pictures with the clouds, but that would pretty much limit me to taking pictures in one direction, which would get boring. So I decided to include saguaros in the pictures with the clouds. There are plenty of those around and you can take pictures of them from just about any angle.

The clouds in that direction weren't as good, but they weren't bad.

The clouds didn't look quite as good by the time I got out there, but that didn't slow me down. I left the camera turned on so I wouldn't have to keep setting up the exposure bracketing for HDRIs and wandered around taking pictures of just about everything.

A stick.

An occasional picture like this looks interesting, but they get old fast, too.

Sometimes, good saguaros aren't in positions to allow good pictures.

Sometimes, it's like they're on a stage.

The clouds got less interesting as it got later.

I heard some coyotes howling over there. They were pretty close. Of course, I never saw them.

I kept taking pictures until there wasn't enough light.

Unless you plan ahead, you may not get good saguaros in your sunset pictures.

Click below for all of the pictures.

BC_2014_02_04

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

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

Saguaro portraits, and balloons

There are some areas in and around the Goldfield Mountains that I haven't seen yet. The reason I haven't seen most of those is because they are difficult to get to. There was one spot in the middle of a flat (compared to a mountain) area that I hadn't been to. That's where I went on Saturday.

Maybe one reason I haven't been there before is that there isn't a lot to see.

As might be expected, there isn't a whole lot to see in the middle of a large flat area. I wound up taking lots of pictures of saguaros.

This saguaro looks like it has a funny face.

There weren't a lot of flowers in that area, either. Well, there were a couple of spots carpeted by tiny yellow flowers. I could see that the northeast side of Lone Mountain was covered in Mexican Gold Poppies. The other side looks like it doesn't have any.

Mexican Gold Poppies on Lone Mountain.

There are a few really big saguaros out there.

I found a total of 4 mylar balloons out there. Actually, I found more, but one was shredded so I didn't pick up all the pieces. It was easy walking for half of the hike. Then I turned around and started heading back uphill to the truck. That's when I really missed the lunch I had forgotten to eat. Well, I had a big breakfast and never felt hungry at lunchtime.

I use saguaros to tell when I have my pictures level. Sometimes they aren't vertical, though. Also, if they are uphill or downhill from the photographer, you need to take parallax into account. After I take a picture with saguaros in it, I look at the scene so I can remember which saguaros were vertical when I'm working on pictures later.

It's warmed up some. I think it was close to 90 out there. It felt good. Click below for all of the pictures. Oh, I went back out there (slightly different spot) Sunday and took lots of pictures of flowers. I haven't uploaded them yet and won't be blogging about that trip, so you're on your own to find them.

2013_03_16

A stroll in Bulldog Canyon

It felt a little cooler yesterday so I decided to go for a short hike. I didn't want to do a lot of climbing so I figured I would wander around a "flat" area in Bulldog Canyon, and maybe climb a small hill.

I've been in that area several times before but I had forgotten lots of details, so it wasn't as boring as I was afraid it might be. It felt like the humidity was still kind of high. There were very few tracks in the washes since they had been wiped clean by recent rains. Termites had covered many sticks on the ground with dirt (to keep them from dehydrating as they munch on the wood).

The ocotillos have fresh green leaves.

Termites at work.

I climbed a small hill. I'm pretty sure I've been on it before. I don't seem to have any pictures there on Panoramio or Google Street View, so maybe it was a different hill. I need to get busy and fill that area with pictures. Click below to see all of this hike's pictures.

2012_09_15

Saguaros

The high Sunday was 108. I needed to go for a hike, and I went out Four Peaks road because I remembered it being not-too-hot the last time I was out there. It was warmer this time, but not unbearable. I think it was only about 102 out there, which is kind of nice if you can get out of the sun. I stopped to rest in the shade of saguaros and paloverdes.

I just wandered around taking pictures of saguaros for a little while. I got back from a week in Texas on Saturday. I had spent the previous week watching the Olympics and eating ice cream. My pants are getting tight.

Well, I wasn't a couch potato the whole time. I spent an afternoon riding a boogie board in the surf. Not enough exercise to make up for a week of eating ice cream.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_08_05

Four Peaks road re-opens

With the occasional shower and the higher humidity of monsoon season, the forest roads are open again. I felt like getting some pictures of saguaros so I drove out Four Peaks road. There were scattered clouds that made the landscape look interesting with shadows.

Four Peaks.

The red stripes are where leftover fire retardant was dumped.

I wanted to get away from the road (even though I didn't see anybody else out there) so I wandered in a northerly direction. I came across a crested saguaro just a few feet from the road. It's a young one.

Maybe it's holding it's arms up in surrender to the knuckleheads that tried to cut it down.

I found a couple of "nests" that consist of cholla sticks and cholla balls piled into a mound. I'd sure like to know what built those.

A prickly nest.

There are a lot of nice looking saguaros out there.

The high that day was 110. It felt a little warm when I started out but it wasn't bad. By the time I started back, the sun was low enough that it didn't feel hot. I think maybe I've been hiding from the heat too much this summer.

A very strange looking saguaro. They usually aren't so thick at the bottom.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_07_26

Missed flowers

It's hard to get pictures of saguaro flowers. That's because they are rarely less than 12 feet above the ground. There's a saguaro near the Superstition Mountains that has a couple of droopy arms that curve down to within a couple of feet of the ground. I've always thought that would be a good place to get pictures of the flowers. I was out there a couple of weeks ago, but it was too soon. I went out there again on Saturday and they were completely gone, like something ate them. Maybe that's why saguaros usually put them up so high.

We still had smoke from the Sunflower fire on Saturday.

I'm going to have to come up with a different plan for getting pictures of saguaro flowers. I have a few ideas, and most of them do not run the risk of serious bodily injury.

Four Peaks hiding behind smoke, dust, pollution, and saguaros.

There were no gnats on the way out to the saguaro, but that must have been because I was fresh as a daisy and was walking into the wind. They were somewhat bothersome on the way back to the truck. I was hoping high temperatures the previous week had singed their buzzy little wings but that's not the case. Click below for all of the pictures.

2012_05_19

A short hike

I need to do more hiking. I've gotten flabby lately. It's just too much fun to play with Emily after work instead of hiking. I need to get out there now, though, before I start complaining about it being too hot. So yesterday I went looking for a particular flower that I wanted to photograph. It's near the Superstition Mountains.

There was something going on when I got there.

There were a lot of vehicles and a channel 3 news truck at the Crosscut trailhead when I got out there. Turns out a woman had fallen off a cliff at the end of the Massacre Grounds trail. I haven't been on that trail since the road to the trailhead was closed. It's a long walk just to get to the start of the trail.

Saguaro flowers are blooming. I'm going to try to get a picture of one this year. It's difficult to do because I'm not 15 feet tall.

I took a bunch of pictures of the Supes.

Somebody went to a lot of effort to put cairns along this "trail".

The flower that I wanted to get a picture of on this hike hasn't bloomed yet. I'll have to check back in a few days. I hope I don't miss it. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_05_02