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

The annual Bulldog Canyon get-together

A group of guys from work had the annual get-together at Bulldog Canyon this weekend. It was beautiful out there on Friday afternoon. I went for a short hike and got a few pictures from the top of a nearby hill.

View of the camp site.

I took a 360 degree panorama.

I didn't camp out this time, either. It's just hard to do that when I'm so close to a hot shower and a soft bed. I took the Ranger out there on Saturday and we took a tour of Bulldog Canyon. It was an overcast and gloomy day, so I didn't get many pictures. I saw four snakes during the day.

A gopher snake.

Rattle snake.

Reminds me of honeysuckle, but I wonder if it's that poisonous plant that just looks like honeysuckle.

It was supposed to rain on Saturday but I don't think it ever did. It did rain during Saturday night. Hard. Glad I wasn't camping out there. I hope Vincenzo did OK. He was in a tent, and had ridden a motorcycle out there. It kept raining off and on all day today, too. There was snow down below 4000 feet, which means the Superstitions got some. It looks like Four Peaks might have had a lot, too, but there were too many clouds over there to tell for sure.

Snow on the Superstition Mountains, and people taking pictures of it.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_03_16

2012_03_17

2012_03_18

Near Picketpost Mountain

Last winter we had some snow down below about 3500 feet. I went out to Superior and tried (with limited success) to find a spot from which to get decent pictures of Picketpost Mountain. I think I found a great spot yesterday, and I didn't even have to get out of my truck.

This is FR231, aka Reymert Road (on some maps).

I did get out of the truck, though, and I climbed a fair sized hill before I discovered the road. Well, I needed the exercise.

Picketpost Mountain from the top of the hill.

It was still pretty cloudy when I was on the hill. I could tell that the clouds were thinning out and I wanted to hang around up there a while and get more pictures as the clouds cleared, but I didn't have clothes warm enough to just stand around as the sun set. I had to keep moving or freeze. It was probably in the 50's out there, but I freeze at remarkably high temperatures. I really need to put some warm clothes in the backpack now that it's cooled off, in case I get stuck out there.

There was a little snow at the very top of Picketpost. There was more on the mountains east of Superior, but it was mostly hidden in clouds.

Look closely and you can see a little snow in the distance on the left.

I had a pretty good view of the mountains to the north, which are the rugged mountains you drive through on your way to the Roger's Trough trailhead. Well, I would have had a good view if it wasn't so hazy and cloudy. I need to go back there when it's clear and get better pictures.

Hewitt Canyon road goes through those mountains.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_12_04

More snow

I had been reading the weather forecasts last week. I knew there was going to be snow. Some forecasts said it would be as low as 2500 feet. Still, on Sunday, after listing to rain all night, I didn't think about going to look for snow. Just before noon, though, I got a call from somebody saying that I should take a look at the Superstition Mountains. So I grabbed my backpack and my camera bag and headed out the door. Forgot to eat lunch. Sure enough, there was quite a bit of snow on the Superstitions. There was also a very large, very dark, very ominous looking cloud coming from the northwest that was dumping something (maybe more snow) on the Flatiron, at the western end of the mountains. I probably should have taken a picture, but I don't like taking pictures in town. Power lines and light poles in my pictures really annoy me, so I try to avoid them.

I drove all the way out to the Hieroglyphic Canyon trailhead, even though I knew I would be too close to the mountains to get good pictures. I figured that I probably had enough pictures of the Superstitions with snow on them and I just wanted to look around. Of course, I took pictures, too.

The view from the Hieroglyphic Canyon trailhead. The Flatiron, and the black cloud over it, are out of view to the left. It's getting dark here, though. Damp snowflakes were hitting me before I left.

It looked a little sunnier to the east, and I could see a lot of snow on the mountains in that direction, so that's where I went. D**n the Renaissance Fair traffic and full speed ahead. Actually, I think a lot of people decided that it wasn't a good day to go to the fair. There wasn't much traffic at all.

I've always wanted to get a good picture of Picketpost Mountain from the west. With snow on it and the sun peeking through the clouds now and then, it would make a nice picture. The trouble is, there isn't any place to park with a good view of the mountain. I don't like the idea of parking on freeway shoulders unless it is absolutely necessary. I found a place to get a hundred feet or so off the road (and almost got stuck in the mud) but couldn't see the mountain. I was hoping I could after climbing a small hill, though. Before I started out, I looked back at the storm. I had gotten a little ahead of it, but now it was catching up with me again. I would have to hurry. I moved quickly to the top without taking any pictures of all the cool stuff I saw on the way up. Well, OK, I took a picture of a saguaro skeleton with snow on it. On the way up, I kept hoping that I wouldn't see another hill between me and Picketpost when I got to the top.

Not a bad view of Picketpost, but the clouds are catching up with me; no sun on the mountain.

Superior. The dark band above it is Apache Leap.

While I was on top of the hill taking pictures, the wind picked up. I had made sure I had at least one poncho with me before I left the house, but being caught in a storm when it's in the 30's wouldn't be fun. I hurried back to the truck and drove on in to Superior.

The storm approaches.

The rest stop in Superior. This is a lot of snow by Valley of the Sun standards.

I was too chicken to continue going east from Superior. The road climbs a thousand feet and I didn't want to drive on any snow, so I headed south on 177.

Looking back towards Superior from 177. The mountains north of it are hidden behind a wall of white.

Snow on saguaros.

A non-HDRI shows how dark it is to the north.

177 climbs gradually for a few miles, then climbs steeply to a pass. There are truck safety pullouts at the top on both sides of the pass, and each had a few people out looking at the snow. I stopped at both to take some pictures and was pelted by tiny balls of snow. I suppose there's some technical name for that kind of snow but I see snow so seldom I'm not going to bother looking it up.

It was snowing in front of me and behind me as I drove south.

A small open-pit mine made slightly less ugly by the snow.

Snow capped saguaros. That seems so out of place, kind of like a bikini at McMurdo Sound.

Snow at the mountain pass. I also took a picture of these people with their camera so they could all be in the picture.

On the south side of the pass, the road descends into the Gila river valley. Of course, there was no snow down there. I went a very short distance down Battle Ax road and climbed a small hill there to get some pictures. The clouds were clearing by then but there was a strong breeze from the north. I stood at the top of the hill for a couple of minutes taking pictures of the mountain to the east and was a little scared when I quit and it felt like the left side of my face had frozen into the goofy expression I make when I'm taking a picture. It thawed quickly when I got out of the wind. Whew.

That cloud looked awesome.

Landscapes look great in the clear winter air. The edges of these clouds look strange. I wonder if it's an HDRI artifact. I'll have to check the original pictures when my NAS isn't so busy (long story).

The wet ground and clear air made the Ray mine look especially colorful.

By the time I started back north, it was clearing over Superior. It was such a nice day, I decided to go east on 60 after all. The road was heavily traveled and completely clear.

Clear sky towards Superior.

60 climbs a canyon east of Superior, and it's very scenic there. There's a tunnel at the beginning of the climb where I've always wanted to take some pictures but have never stopped. I stopped this time, though, since I wasn't in a hurry to get someplace else.

At the uphill end of the tunnel.

The tunnel.

The area at the top of the canyon is called Oak Flat. In such rugged terrain, flat areas are rare and they always seem to have a name. Being flat, it had lots of snow and also lots of people playing in it. I went past there on Magma Mine road and took some pictures of snow on all the rocks. I kept thinking I needed to work on being more artistic with my pictures of the snow instead of just showing what was there, but my pictures are rarely, if ever, artistic, so I don't know why I kept thinking that.

An almost artistic picture of snow on a rock.

This almost looks a little artistic.

By the time I got back to the western side of Picketpost Mountain, the sun was shining on it and the snow was quickly melting. I took a few pictures from the road to the Picketpost Mountain trailhead.

It didn't take long for the snow to melt.

The sky was clear over the Supes when I got back there, and there was just a thin line of snow at the very top. I thought about getting some pictures from Silly Mountain, but by then I was way too hungry. I ate all the beef jerky in my backpack but it just wasn't very filling. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_02_27

Snow day

I'm glad I got out and took some pictures of the fluffy clouds we had yesterday. Today it was overcast, gloomy, and dreary looking. It looked like winter, but it was in the 50s and calm, so it didn't feel very wintry. Sweetums and I went up to Payson, and continued on up to the Mogollon Rim. I was surprised to see how much snow there was up there. It was about 50 up there, too. No breeze. I was comfortable taking pictures in a flannel shirt.

At the first place we stopped, I thought I was going to walk to an area nobody had been to yet, to get pictures of pristine snow. I soon found out why nobody had walked there. I grew up in Houston, so I don't know much about snow. When I got to the part where nobody had walked, my feet sank at least a foot before they stopped. After 3 or 4 steps, I felt the snow in my shoes. That is not a pleasant feeling. I stopped there and took a few pictures.

There were some really pretty patches of snow on rocks and icicles along the side of the highway. I didn't want to get run over while taking pictures, though, so I didn't get any of the really cool looking stuff. Still, I think I got enough pictures of snow to last about a year.

2009_02_15

Snow and water

When I drove out to Cottonwood Creek yesterday, I could see snow on the north side of the Superstition Mountains. You'll see that in the pictures.

2009_02_11

Four Peaks misadventure

Richard, Alex, and I drove up to Four Peaks today. Well, we got close to the end of the road. First we will look at my pictures. You see Alex playing on a pile of dirt, a few pictures of the mountains covered in snow, and a picture that shows the road we came in on, with the Fountain Hills fountain in the background. It looks so nice, doesn't it? Well, it was a little more stressful than that. Anyway, look at my pictures first.

Four Peaks misadventure

There was a lot of traffic up there today. Lots of ATVs and dirt bikes and pickups zipping back and forth. Many times I had to get over to the side of the road to let somebody by in one direction or the other. We were near the end of the road at the top when an ATV came toward us. As I had dozens of times before, I moved to the side of the road. The critical difference this time was that the road had a layer of compacted snow on it. The feeling of my sinking heart matched the sinking of my right tires into the ditch. The tires just spun on the snow. Locking the axle didn't help at all. I was not happy. I don't think Richard was, either, but at least he was polite. Alex was having a good time. Finally, something to relieve his boredom.

A mile or two back, we had stopped to take a picture of a couple (for them, with their camera) in a Polaris ATV (a Ranger, I think). They caught up with us now and offered to pull us out. Their ATV had a winch that could pull 8000 pounds. That should do it, but I didn't see what would keep the ATV from being pulled to the truck. The guy parked it against a tree. Then it was a piece of cake. I was impressed. I was also very pleased. Thanks, Erv! Not a scratch on the truck. Yea, Polaris!

I've started a shopping list: tire chains, winch or come-along, shovel, etc. Or maybe I should just stay out of those situations. Sure, like that's gonna happen. I just need to be prepared. The locking rear axle has gotten me out a few jams on dry dirt and rocks, but it's next to useless on snow.

Click below to see Richard's pictures. There are a few of the truck as it gets pulled out. There's an action shot of Erv running the winch. Richard had two of him doing that but in the other one he was just standing there looking bored. I like this one.

Four Peaks misadventure Richard

There is also a good picture of Alex next to something that is not a snowman, but I don't remember exactly what it is. Alex said a lot of strange things today and they kind of run together (there was something about a whale telling him to use his instincts so he could fly like a chicken). Alex doesn't just think outside the box; he thinks in a parallel universe.

We don't have any pictures of the rest of our adventure. It probably would have been rude to take pictures of that guy that was in so much pain he could barely move. It looked like maybe he went into a corner too fast on his dirt bike and smacked into solid rock or dirt or something that was not nearly as soft as a cholla. I bet he would have rather hit a cholla. Like many bike riders, he couldn't relax until his bike was taken care of. We loaded it into the truck and he got in the jeep that was there. The bike didn't look like it was in very bad shape. The gas tank was cracked, though. The jeep had to go very slow. It's a long, bumpy road. It probably took them several hours to get him down. I just hope he made it OK and went on to an emergency room. Even if nothing is broken or ruptured, I don't think he's going to be able to move much for about a week.

I asked Richard if he wanted to go check out FS172 with me next weekend. He laughed, but he didn't answer. Hmm.

A rare event, again!

Late last winter, we had a heavy snowfall (I was out hiking in it). The mountains within sight of Phoenix were covered in snow. It seemed to be a rare occurrence. It happened again this year, though!

Richard called me from Superstition Springs Mall this afternoon to let me know that he could see snow on the Superstition Mountains. Thanks, Richard! I hadn't even checked because it had been so cloudy all day that I couldn't even see the mountains. I grabbed my camera and headed for the Superstitions. I took a few pictures there and decided to go check out Four Peaks. It was covered in clouds as I drove out there, but after I had been driving up and down Four Peaks road for a while, the clouds mostly cleared away. I stood by the truck at various places along the road taking pictures. The temperature dropped as the sun got lower. My hands were pretty numb by the time it got too dark to take pictures. I took 175 pictures today.

No sunset pictures. There was a large black cloud moving in from northwest that made it dark before sunset. That cloud went over our house and dumped some sleet.

Click the picture below to open a new window with all the pictures. Most of them are of the Superstitions or Four Peaks. There is one of Weaver's Needle. There are a few other ramdom mountains and clouds thrown in. I hope you enjoy them, but you really should have been there.

Snow on Jan 21