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.

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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

Random rambling

One day last week I went out to the spot off Meridian road where I frequently go to take pictures of sunsets. I was there a little early so I was wandering around looking for pieces of RC planes (there's an RC airfield nearby). Anyway, I got a picture of this.

Crepuscular anti-ray?

Now you can Google crepuscular ray and you will find something like this. There's one key difference, though. The "ray" part refers to a ray of light. This picture shows a ray of shadow. Therefore it must be a crepuscular anti-ray. It can't be an anti-crepuscular ray because that is what's shown in the next picture. Sort of.

Anti-crepuscular anti-ray?

If you Google anti-crepuscular ray, you will see that it's crepuscular rays on the side of the sky opposite the sun that seem to converge towards a point at the horizon. Again, I have a picture of a shadow, so it must be an anti-crepuscular anti-ray.

I also got a picture of the moon.

... and some red clouds.

I only wandered a short distance that day, and it was late, and the ground was mostly level, but I got very wet. The humidity is way up because it's that time of year.

I went out there again another day and got another crepuscular anti-ray picture. Then, on my way home, I went by this place at Meridian and Brown road where I always think think I'll stop and get pictures of kids riding horses and decided that it was time to actually stop.

Another crepuscular anti-ray.

I don't know anything about riding horses. I think they were barrel racing or something like that. I tried taking pictures but it was too dark for pictures of movement.

This didn't turn out too bad. Most were very blurred.

I took pictures of this horse because it looked worried. It later convinced me that I should probably leave before I got hurt.

A few days later, I needed to get out and climb something, so I went to a small mesa at the corner of Usery Pass road and Bush Highway. I thought I might be able to get some sunset pictures from there, and the sun and clouds cooperated.

I like the way the clouds look.

In the other direction was a small storm, with lightning. It convinced me that I should get off that mesa.

One day, I got home from work and there was an amazing cloud on the other side of the Superstition Mountains, so I went to get a picture of it. Of course, I had to be in the right setting. I didn't want houses or cars or power lines in the picture. By the time I got to the right place, the cloud was gone. However, another popped up and I like the pictures I got of it.

A nice storm cloud.

I saw some great lightning on the way home, and it was getting dark enough to take pictures of it, so I stopped on the Meridian road overpass. I took about 70 pictures. About 10 had lightning in them. About 4 looked halfway decent.

Twin lightning bolts.

Then, this past weekend, Sweetums and I made our annual summer trip to the top of Mt Lemmon. I think it was only about 95 when we started up the mountain road. It was about 63 near the top in Summerhaven, which feels very nice after a couple of months of 100+ temperatures.

There were some nice clouds around on the way up. It's dark and raining to the left.

I seem to get pictures of the same stuff every time I'm up there.

When we started back down, I saw some clouds draped over parts of the mountain up ahead and pulled off the road to get pictures. By the time I got out of the truck, though, we were in the cloud. I waited a few minutes, but it was just getting thicker, so I continued on the way down. For a while, I could only see about a hundred feet ahead, so I was going slow. I kept having to pull over to let people by that were in a hurry. I don't know why there aren't a bunch of wrecks on that mountain. The visibility got down to about 20 feet before it started to lift. That was scary.

We got out of the clouds just before Windy Point and the rest of the drive down the mountain was uneventful. We ate in Tucson and on the way back to Phoenix, it seemed like there was lightning all around. Then it rained. It was the hardest rain I've seen since moving to Arizona 10 years ago. It rained for a long time like that. I expected it to be about 100 when we got back to Phoenix but it was still in the 70's. Seems there had been some showers there, too. I saw something that evening that I have never seen in Arizona before; a frog hopping along the road. I saw two of them. Unprecedented. You know it was wet.

Taken at Windy Point.

It was much cooler than usual the next day in the Phoenix area. It rained a little, and in the afternoon I thought I should drive out to Tortilla Flat to see if Tortilla Creek was flowing across the road. I didn't even get as far as the Ghost Town on Apache Trail, though. It must have rained very hard in the Superstition Mountains. Weekes Wash was a raging torrent.

Weekes Wash. Never imagined it could look like this. It had dropped about 2 feet by the time I got there.

Well, I'm not caught up yet, but dinner's ready. More later.

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High point

It's not really all that high, though.

I wanted to get outside and take some pictures yesterday, and maybe see a nice sunset. I headed for Silly Mountain. It's easy to climb and I might be able to get some good sunset pictures from there. Also, it had cooled off and I wanted to enjoy the 75 degree weather before the scorching heat arrives.

This is what Silly Mountain looks like. Not real impressive.

This is what the sun looked like on the way up.

Silly Mountain is very easy to get to, so there are always people there. It isn't crowded, though, unless those other people happen to be exactly where you were going. I thought about taking a 360 panorama from the top but there were other people up there. Oh well, I need to do something like that earlier in the day anyway.

There's a sign to let you know you are at the top. I wonder how many people have trouble figuring that out. Well, maybe that's just the name of that spot on the mountain.

High point, trail ends.

The sunset wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped, but it was nice.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_04_11

An afternoon stroll

If you want to go for a walk just to go for a walk, a good place to go is over by the Superstition Mountains. The scenery is nice and you might get some good pictures. I headed over there after work on Thursday. The days are getting long enough to hike after work now. I parked at the Crosscut trailhead. There was only one other vehicle there.

A stand of cholla along the way.

There was just a very light breeze. It was very peaceful and relaxing out there. I had been along the same trail about a year ago and didn't see much on either side because I was focused on reaching my destination and on the way back I was just too tired (and it was dark). Since I didn't have to be anywhere before sunset on this hike, I wandered off the trail now and then checking things out. I didn't see anything real exciting, but at least I saw it.

I've done a lot of hiking in those mountains.

Every once in a while, I thought I heard voices, and would stop and listen and then decide it was the wind playing tricks on me. Eventually, though, I heard the voices even while crunching along the path, and I could tell what direction they were coming from. It must have been the people from the other vehicle. Looked like a father and a couple of teenagers.

The other hikers.

I turned back soon enough that I would get back to the truck well before it got dark. I felt like I had to keep stopping to look around for good picture opportunities as the sun sank.

Clouds to the west let the sun illuminate portions of the landscape.

The filtered sunlight made cholla look like they were glowing.

I see lots of cool stuff on my hikes, but pictures of the Supes always seem to turn out more impressive than all the other stuff.

It was a pretty sunset. I almost missed it as I concentrated on not twisting an ankle on the last little bit of the hike to the truck. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_02_09

Sunset pictures

The clouds we have this time of year often make for some stunning sunsets. I watched a couple from the yard but I've given up on taking pictures of them from there. Can't stand all the houses and light poles in the way. I used to drive out to the desert 2 or 3 times a week to get sunset pictures but I finally got tired of not enjoying them. It's been a while since I've taken any, so yesterday I headed out to Bulldog Canyon to go for a short hike and photograph the sunset.

I got out there just before the sun set.

The moon was up.

It was a nice sunset.

I didn't see much wildlife. Just rabbits and birds. I was next to a deer trail, but I didn't scare off any deer. There was only 1 fly and no gnats. Boy, that was nice. Click below to see all of the pictures.

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