Tag: Arizona (page 52 of 74)
Bob, Sarge, Venie, Linda, Nancy, Marilyn, and I hiked the Boulder Canyon Trail in the Superstition Mountains on Friday. We hiked out to the intersection with the Second Water Trail #236 and then returned via the same route. My GPS showed just over 9 miles with over 2,000 feet of total ascent when we finished.
The hike starts from the parking lot of the Canyon Lake Marina. There are parking places designated for hikers near the road. As you cross the road, you walk by the one lane bridge that you probably crossed on your way to the Marina. This bridge crosses Boulder Creek which, I think, is fed by the waterway of Boulder Canyon.
A view of Boulder Creek shortly after we started hiking up the Boulder Canyon Trail.
Canyon Lake:
A view looking east. The road visible in this photo is Arizona 88, also known as the Apache Trail.
Another view of Canyon Lake.
Yet another view of Canyon Lake. The Boulder Creek Bridge is visible in this photo.
The Boulder Canyon Trail has a longish uphill section that starts pretty much after crossing the road. Midway up, we got our first views of Battleship Mountain and Weaver’s Needle. At this point, the Boulder Canyon Trail overlooks Boulder canyon at the right in this photo.
I used a 16-70mm zoom lens on my camera for this hike. I used it at the long end to get this photo of Battleship Mountain and Weaver’s Needle.
Linda posed for this photo with Battleship Mountain and Weaver’s Needle in the background.
This photo shows the Boulder Canyon Trail, Boulder Canyon, with the walls of La Barge Canyon, Battleship Mountain, and Weaver’s Needle in the Distance.
I think this is my favorite photo (from this set) of Boulder Canyon.
Linda told me that this is a Chicory Flower.
Another view of this flower. We hiked through a light rain shower early on in the hike, hence the water droplets on the flower.
A yellow flower that I haven’t been able to identify.
I think this is a view looking back along Boulder Canyon.
A rain shower off in the distance. Also, a look back at the trail.
Marilyn and Nancy descend a portion of the trail.
A look forward before beginning our descent to La Barge Canyon.
Another view of Boulder Canyon.
Bob with Sarge.
I think the prow of the Flatiron can be seen in this photo near the right of the mountain range in the distance.
Canyon Lake had disappeared from view for a long while, but became visible again for a short while.
Another view of Battleship Mountain and Weaver’s Needle together. This was close to the our last view of Weaver’s Needle until we made the return trip.
At this point, Weaver’s Needle is hidden behind Battleship Mountain.
An interesting rock formation that we passed on the way.
I think this is La Barge Canyon. Our trail lead us across LaBarge Canyon.
There are some old mining ruins along the way.
A Buckhorn Cholla? (Most of the ones I see branch out a lot more.)
Brittlebush with a wall of La Barge Canyon in the background.
We stopped to eat lunch on this large rock next to a creek.
A variety of flora a this location.
A view of Boulder Creek / Boulder Canyon. There were pools of water in the creek, but I didn’t see any flowing water at this point.
At this point the Boulder Canyon Trail crosses the creek a (large) number of times. Having hiked over four miles at this point, we turned back instead.
Another view of our lunch location.
This was actually composed from two exposures. In the first one, Venie, Linda, and Bob were looking my way, and in the second, Marilyn and Nancy were looking towards the camera, but the rest were not.
This is a panorama composed from ten exposures. Even though I had a 16mm lens (at its widest), I could only see small sections of this scene through my viewfinder.
Another view of Battleship Mountain. I climbed a small hill just off the main trail to get this shot. I don’t think it was visible from the trail down where the rest of the group are.
A look at Battleship Mountain midway back up one of the long hills on the way back. It was afternoon at this point; it had become quite sunny (and warm) along this stretch, but the clouds reasserted themselves later on.
Another interesting rock formation that we saw on the way back.
We came across this lizard who had trouble getting out of its hole. It thrashed around for quite a while in an attempt to get out, though it stayed still when I took this and several other photos. Bob cleared some of the rocks and dirt around the hole to help it get out. The ground was incredibly hard.
Canyon Lake in the afternoon.
Brittlebush flowers:
Buckhorn Cholla flower:
This is Camel’s Head, a rock formation that may be viewed from the Heart of the Rocks Loop in the Chiricahua National Monument.
This is Pinnacle Balanced Rock, one of the first named rock formations encountered on a hike of the Heart of the Rocks Loop at Chiricahua National Monument.
I saw this tree as I was hiking between Pinnacle Balanced Rock and Old Maid.
This rock formation is named Old Maid and can be seen from the Heart of the Rocks Loop in the Chiricahua National Monument.
We encountered this rock formation, aptly named Big Balanced Rock, on the Big Balanced Rock Trail in the Chiricahua National Monument. According to the nearby sign, it is 25 feet high, 22 feet in diameter, and weighs 1,000 tons.
A photo from our hike of the Echo Canyon Trail in the Chiracahua National Monument.
Marilyn, Marie, and I visited Tombstone earlier this week. After lunching at the OK Cafe, we visited Doc Holiday’s Gunfight Palace where several historic gunfights were reenacted. I took these photos during the performance.
Marilyn took this photo from that performance:
The Tombstone Courthouse, which is now a museum. I think it was worth the $5 per person entry fee.
The Tombstone Epitaph, which also seems to be a museum:
Marilyn took this photo of a tourist ride in the form of a mail wagon. Note the signs for the OK Corral in this photo.
These photos are from Boot Hill, seemingly one of the few places in town at which admittance is free.
Nancy, Bob, Janet, Allen, Savannah, and I did the Ballantine Cabin & Corral hike on Friday. When we were done, my GPS showed a distance of eleven miles with over 2300 feet of total ascent.
For many of my hikes, I simply use the GPS as a trip computer, however, for this one, we used it to find our way for several miles of the hike. If you do this hike, I recommend using one of the GPS tracks for this hike as it is easy to miss a turn past Ballantine Cabin.
We started just after 7:00am; we got to see the sun rise as we drove to the trailhead. This was one of the views as we hiked up the Pine Creek Loop.
Another view from the Pine Creek Loop. We went up the steep way so that we’d have an easier descent on the way back.
Another view from the Pine Creek Loop.
The Pine Creek Loop is about 2.5 miles long. The Ballantine Trail intersects the Pine Creek Loop halfway around the loop. We took the Ballantine Trail out toward Boulder Flat.
More areas of sun and shade.
One of many interesting rock formations along the hike:
This rock formation can be seen at the 2.5 mile point in the hike.
Nancy, Savannah, Allen, Janet, and Bob:
Bob, Janet, Allen, and Nancy. (I’m sure Savannah is in there somewhere too.)
This prominent rock formation is just on the other side of Camp Creek.
A fence can occasionally be seen while hiking. I always marvel at the fact that there are fences out here. This hike is quite strenuous. The ranchers who constructed these fences must have been in excellent physical condition.
Savannah hiking with Janet:
A view of that same reddish rock formation from high on the hill that we had to climb to get to Ballantine Cabin.
We got our first view of the cabin shortly after reaching the top of the hill. From there, we had to descend a steep(ish) trail with occasional loose rock.
A view of Ballantine Cabin. I didn’t take many photos of it this time and I had gotten more than a few from last year’s hike out to the cabin.
We continued on our way to the corral crossing through an opening in the fence in the process. There was probably a barbed wire gate here at one time.
We saw a lot of black caterpillars on a short (1/2 mile to 1 mile) of the trail. The caterpillars looked much darker than this; I used the +2 EV exposure for this photo in order to get a better look at it.
We saw this large flattish slab of rock along the way.
I think this is Fleabane:
Savannah waits for the rest of the group to ascend the steep, thorny path on our way to the corral.
An interesting rock formation somewhat past the corral.
I took this photo from a large granite slab.
This is the start of another steep, loose, and rocky descent.
But the views are great from this location! I took several photos here…
I think this is the same reddish rock formation that we has passed earlier on the way out.
A view of Red Mountain off in the distance. Fountain Hills is off to the right.
I saw this dead tree as I was making my descent.
Poppies:
A look back at where we had come from:
Looking ahead again as I try to catch up with the rest of the group.
Globemallow:
Nancy waits by the prominent rock formation at the intersection with the trail leading over to the cabin (which we had hiked earlier in the day).
We had some big puffy clouds for a while, which made the sky more interesting.
A saguaro at the top of a small rise on the way back.
A look back as Bob, Allen, Savannah, Janet, and Nancy make their way along the Ballantine.
We had some great views on the way back too…
Brittlebush (and a great view):
Another great view…
A saguaro with lots of arms crowded together. It has even more on the other side. This saguaro is on the Pine Creek Loop with less than half a mile to go to the parking area.
A view of Weaver’s Needle from the Probrecito Staging Area, near Saguaro Lake.
