Elizabeth Sue Brown

In memory of

Elizabeth Sue Brown

June 19, 1924 - February 28, 2014

Out for a stroll

On a sunny day not too long ago, I headed out to Bulldog Canyon mainly because I needed to get some exercise and didn't want to drive very far. I headed for a hill I hadn't climbed for a few years. I had been looking at that area in Google Earth and it looked like there was a prospect just north of the hill.

I saw my first Mexican gold poppy of the season on this hike.

The hill to be climbed is in the foreground on the left; not very big.

On the way up the hill I came across a Gila monster. This is about the fifth one I've seen in the past 11 years. I vividly remember 4 of them and I think there must be a fifth that I'm forgetting right now.

I was trying to get a picture when it had its tongue out. Missed it in most of the pictures.

Google made an animated GIF of the pictures.

I could see the prospect from the top of the hill, which was close enough for me. I think I was at that prospect about 7 years ago.

The prospect. Just another shallow hole in the ground.

This looks tame, but it's exhausting to walk across.

Somebody made a large pile of large rocks near the top of the hill. Then somebody else scattered a few of the rocks.

The usual parade of WWII planes flew over.

I decided to go down to the wash on the south side of the hill and then go upstream. I had seen a desert tortoise there a few years ago so I thought I would try my luck again. When the wash got too bouldery and overgrown to continue, I continued uphill on its left bank. Oh, no desert tortoise this time.

Cholla skeletons are beautiful.

It was a beautiful day, so I just kept walking and taking pictures. It eventually got too steep and rocky for easy walking. It looked like somebody might have marked a trail there. Maybe there's a route to the top. I'll have to go back another day to check that out, though. I didn't have enough water, food, or daylight to do it on this day.

The hill I came out here to climb is that little bump down there on the right.

Click below for all of the pictures.

BC_2014_02_09

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

A favorite spot in Bulldog Canyon

There's an area in Bulldog Canyon where I've always enjoyed hiking. The past few times I've been there, though, was during gnat season. The gnats were so bad they drove me out. The other day when I was trying to decide where to hike, I figured I should go out there before the gnats got bad this year.

There was rain to the north, but I had a feeling it wouldn't get close to me.

I'm going up there.

Unfortunately, the clouds would be behind mountains for most of this hike.

It had been so long since I had been out there, I didn't remember the best route. There's only one way to get where I was going, though. The landscape guided me where I needed to go. I just went the hard way.

I've tried to get up there several times. Haven't found a route, yet.

A cliff edge, and the edge of the rain clouds.

The clouds look ominous. I still wasn't worried.

I've taken a lot of pictures of this view over the years.

The rocks have lots of holes up here.

It seemed to be much easier to get up there than it had years ago. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. First, I stop more often to take pictures. Rest helps. Second, I've only been up there before in very hot weather. Hiking in 100+ degree weather in a place where you can't get out of the sun is difficult.

This is a very nice view. I usually relish the breeze that blows through this spot but on this day it felt a little chilly.

I finally know how to get a halfway decent picture of the holes in that rock.

There are fluffy clouds to the south.

That rock looks almost like a mail box.

It was a pleasant, bug-free hike. I think I've climbed higher years ago than I did on this hike. It didn't seem safe to keep going. Maybe I missed a turn I had made before. Click below for all of the pictures.

2014_02_01

Old mines

I guess you could call them mines. Is there some other name for small holes dug in the ground while looking for something valuable? I think that if they had found anything worthwhile, they would have kept digging.

There are several small mesas at the southeast corner of the intersection of Usery Pass Road and Bush Highway. I was looking for someplace to burn a few calories after work and that area is quick and easy to get to. I've been there several times in the past, but I hadn't been on all of the mesas. I headed to an area I hadn't been to before and was walking along a ridge when I looked across to another mesa and saw what looked like a spot that somebody had been digging.

The Salt River is over there.

The patrol copter.

Somebody has been digging over there.

I wasn't paying close attention when I decided to hike over to the dug-up spot, so I didn't go in quite the right direction and didn't find it. I couldn't spend much time looking because the sun was setting. Click below to open a new window with the pictures from this hike.

2014_01_22

I looked at the pictures when I got home and it was obvious that the ground had been dug up. I memorized a saguaro near the spot to use as a guide the next time I went out there, which was the next day. I easily found my destination saguaro and then the hole in the ground.

The first hole in the ground was very shallow. Yes, first.

From the hole in the ground, I could see another one a little further uphill.

The second hole was deeper and a critter had put a lot of cholla balls in it.

I went to the top of the mesa from there and wandered around a little taking pictures, then headed toward the truck. I had just started going downhill when I found another hole.

Cholla.

Sundog over Red Mountain.

Another hole. This one looks familiar.

The hole I found on the way downhill looked familiar. I was pretty sure I had seen it maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I continued downhill and found another hole that went into the side of the hill and was pretty deep. Now I was sure I had been out there before. For years I had been meaning to go back to this mine when the sun was higher in the sky to try to determine how big the inside was. I could never find it again. The first time I was out there was before I had the stuff to geotag my pictures. I had given up on ever finding it. I still need to go out there when the sun is high in the sky, though.

I think the rock dug out has this channel in it to keep the mine from filling with rain water.

Click below to open a new window with all the pictures

2014_01_23

South of Black Cross Butte

There's a fairly large stone arch south of Black Cross Butte that I've been meaning to hike to for a few years now. I decided to make a more concentrated effort. I decided to do this after 2 weeks of being an extreme couch potato, so I started out easy. On the first hike I followed a creek bed until I got to a spot that would take more effort to get around than I wanted to put forth that day.

There are some interesting rocks along the way.

This slowed me down, somewhat.

If I had gone down the long steep slope to get back to the creek bed, I would then have had to climb a few hundred feet to get to the arch. That was more than I could do after two weeks on the couch. Instead, I took my time wandering back to the truck and took lots of pictures of rocks.

I made some stereo pictures, too. It isn't possible to get into a good position to get pictures of some of the rocks, so they just blend into the background. With stereo pictures, it's possible to see what's what. These are viewed by crossing your eyes so the left eye looks at the right half and the right eye looks at the left half.

I have asked several people what they think of the stereo pictures and they say either "I only have one eye" or "My mother told me that if I crossed my eyes they would get stuck like that." I don't think anybody has told me that they can see the 3D effect yet. Well, I guess I'll keep making them for my own amusement. Click below to open a new window with pictures from that hike.

2014_01_12

I was in better shape by the next time I went out there. I studied Google Earth and planned my route. I packed plenty of water and charged the camera battery. I was determined to get to the arch this time, unless I didn't. Well, I'm not going to drop off a cliff I can't climb back up. It wouldn't be any fun getting to the arch if I couldn't tell anybody about it.

I went out there on the Saturday before MLK day. I had no idea so many festivities were planned for that day along Apache Trail. When I got past most of the traffic, I was still stuck behind people going 20mph for who-knows-why. Fortunately, I had left the house early and had plenty of sunshine left by the time I got out there.

My destination is near the big rock poking up just to the right of center.

As I had seen on GE, I had to clamber over several rock piles and find my way through a few sudden elevation changes to get there. There was no hint of a trail.

I got a nice picture of an agave along the way.

Lighting was not good for pictures of Black Cross Butte.

It seemed to take a while, but I got to the large rock that I knew was very close to the arch without too much difficulty. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get around it when I suddenly realized that I was right next to the arch. I didn't need to get around the rock.

I took this while I was trying to figure out how to keep going, but the top of the arch is in the lower left corner of this picture.

There are actually two arches, side by side.

Here's a picture that includes my shadow for scale.

I tried to figure out how to get to the base of the arch to get pictures from there, but it looked like I would have to hike another mile to do that and I felt like the pictures I had were good enough.

A stereo picture of the arch. Now I know everybody out there would never do anything their mother told them not to do, so I guess I'm the only deviant that will enjoy the 3D effect.

As is often the case, the route back was not as obvious as the route out. I did have to double back at one spot on the way back.

I got a nice picture of a saguaro on the way back.

One reason I didn't want to try to hike down to the bottom of the arch was because I had gone pretty far already over unfamiliar terrain that required specific routes to get across. I wanted to head back before I forgot the way or before I tried to remember too much. I could retrace my route using the PN40, but it could be dangerous to rely on high tech devices so I don't want to get into that habit. Also, I would be much more tired after hiking down there (if I was successful), which can lead to bad decisions as the sun is setting. People sometimes express concern about me being out in the desert by myself, but I'm very careful about what I do. I try not to make any decision without actually thinking about it because I know it's easy to casually wander into a disaster. Click below to open a new window with the pictures from this hike.

2014_01_18

Now you may be wondering why I'm not done, since I had made it to the arch. Well, on my way to the arch I saw some interesting landscapes further to the south. I wanted to see what that area looked like up close. I thought I might also be able to get some pictures of the maze of canyons even further to the south from up above. Again, I studied GE and again, I wandered off into the great unknown. I love doing that, as long as it's not so unknown that I have to carry my own environment with me.

I didn't see anything spectacular on this hike. Just the usual beautiful landscape. It turns out that my view of the maze of canyons was blocked by a ridge. I took lots of pictures, but none stand out. I like to look at them because I can see lots of other places I've been in them, but they might look boring to anybody else. Like 'em or not, click below to see all of the pictures.

2014_01_20