Tag: Friday Fitness Hike (page 25 of 36)

August 23, 2014 / 6 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s hike started from the Four Peaks (Horse) Staging Area. Janet, Linda, and I crossed the main park road and then hiked a service road from the parking area for the competitive tracks to the Pemberton Trail. We then hiked Pemberton to Shallmo Wash and returned to the Horse Staging Area via the wash. Total hike distance was 7.6 miles.

Sunrise – this was taken from the parking lot.

Another early morning photo taken from the parking area:

These shots were taken early on from the service road.

Red Mountain, framed by a saguaro and some ocotillo plants:

Despite taking bracketed exposures (of only +/- 0.7EV), the sky ended up being blown out in this photo of Janet and Linda. I decided that I kind of liked it anyway. Somewhere around this point, I had also inadvertently put the camera in shutter priority mode; as a consequence, all of the exposures were taken at 1/2000sec, which led to the camera selecting larger apertures (for a shallower depth of field) and higher ISO values (which results in more noise). I didn’t notice that this happened until we were almost done with the Pemberton.

This photo was taken at the junction of the service road and the Pemberton Trail.

A view of one of the clay pits along the Pemberton. I’ve been told that clay was once mined here to determine its suitability for use in making pipe. Clay in this area might have been extensively mined were it not for the invention of PVC pipe.

A tank, which presumably once held water, near the former site of the ranch house.

A toppled windmill, also located near the site where the ranch house once was:

I stitched together four exposures to form this panorama of the “pond”. This is where wildlife in the area get their water.

These cut ocotillo branches and gate have been placed to match an old photo of the entrance to the homestead displayed on a nearby sign.

A dead tree along the Pemberton Trail:

I don’t hike Shallmo wash very often. The sand is usually very loose, but water from recent storms made the surface very firm for Friday’s hike.

Linda and Janet in Shallmo Wash:

More photos of Shallmo wash…

August 16, 2014 / 3 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob and I hiked 6.25 miles starting from the Trailhead Staging Area last Friday.

I took this photo from midway up the Hilltop Trail just moments before sunrise.

A view looking down the Hilltop Trail. The trail leads back to the Trailhead Staging Area, which is a large parking lot complete with bathroom and showers. The early morning light gave the McDowells a magenta glow.
Other early morning photos, taken shortly after the hike began…

This is a view of Shallmo Wash: Another view from Shallmo Wash:

I took this photo from midway up the hill of the Technical Loop in the Competitive Track area.

A view from the top of the hill on the Tech Loop.

A view from Stoneman Wash:

A barrel cactus, viewed from the Pemberton Trail, just before climbing out of Stoneman Wash:

August 12, 2014 / 1 Comment

Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s Hike started from the Wagner Trailhead. Linda, Bob, and I hiked 11.3 miles total that day.

A view of the sunrise before the hike:

Recent rain has caused the Senna flowers to pop out.

As we hiked some of the washes, we saw evidence of rapidly moving water.

A rock formation in the wash paralleling the Bluff Trail.

More views from the wash…

We saw a large bird, probably a hawk, sitting atop a rock as we hiked a wash.

I took this photo from the shadow of the saguaro.

A view as we neared the Pemberton:

Approaching Granite Tank…

We saw a new gate connecting the Park to the Preserve near Granite Tank. Linda take a look…

We hiked out on one of the new trails on the Preserve side to this rock formation. Bob and I scrambled to the top. Linda took these three pictures:

A view of Red Mountain from the Granite Trail:

August 2, 2014 / 1 Comment

Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s hike started from the Lousley Hill Trailhead. Bob, Allen, Janet, Sarge, Bella, Savannah, and I hiked one lap on Lousley Hill. We then hiked up Lousley Wash to the Pemberton Trail and took the Escondido Trail back to Lousley Hill Trail, for a four mile hike. I went on to hike another four miles by myself, adding in another lap of Lousley Hill along the way. As I was hiking down Lousley Hill, I noticed that my total ascent was at around 700 feet. I hiked up and down a steep(ish) section of the hill two times to bring the total ascent up to 1,000 feet for the day.

A view of the sunrise from near the Trailhead:

Allen, Janet, and Bob, with dogs Savannah, Bella, and Sarge part way up the Lousley Hill Trail.

Lousley Wash:

A water break for dogs on Lousley Wash:

Hiking Lousley Wash…

A large, many-armed saguaro on the Escondido Trail.

A hedgehog cactus:

More saguaros on the Escondido Trail:

Another hedgehog cactus next to the remains of a cholla:

Rocks encountered along the Escondido Trail…

A view of Red Mountain in the distance.

Returning on the Escondido Trail:

A view of the overlook on Lousley Hill. If you look very closely, you can just make out a railing at the overlook. A palo verde tree near the top of Lousley Hill:

July 25, 2014 / 3 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob and I hiked the Dixie Mine Trail out to the service road for the antenna towers. We then hiked up to the Prospector Trail and took the first wash down towards the mine. There were a large number of bees around the pools of water at the waterfall, so we worked our way around the waterfall via a different path. We eventually did end up at the mine and the petroglyphs before hiking back. Total distance today was only 6.5 miles.

This is the crested saguaro at the trailhead parking lot.

Another photo at the trailhead:

This is the wash just off the Prospector Trail: A look back at a fun rock upon which to scramble:

Still in the wash…

A view from the top of the (mostly dry) waterfall.

A view looking down upon the same area in the previous picture. We had gained quite a lot of elevation between the previous shot and this one.

A view of the mine. If you look closely, you can see the metal protective grate over the mine shaft at the top of the tailings.

A photo of the main petroglyph panel:

As I was leaving the mine area, I noticed what appeared to be a large, very textured root.

We saw flowers on the way back. We were both surprised by this because, although we’ve gotten rain recently, the highs have been over 110 degrees. The flowers did look somewhat wilted.

A view from the Dixie Mine Trail:

July 19, 2014 / 2 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Sarge, Bob, Linda, and I hiked seven miles on Friday. Starting from the Wagner Trailhead, we walked across the street and took Tortoise to Pemberton, Pemberton to Stoneman Wash, Stoneman Wash to the Bluff Trail Wash, Bluff Trail Wash to Granite, Granite to Wagner, and Wagner back to the trailhead. (The Bluff Trail Wash feeds into Stoneman Wash. The Bluff Trail overlooks this wash.)

I arrived at the trailhead just after sunrise, but fortunately, there were some nice clouds obscuring the sun, giving me this shot:

A view from the Tortoise Trail. Weaver’s Needle is barely visible in the distance.

This is a view from the Pemberton as it descends into Stoneman Wash. Red Mountain is visible in the distance.

There’s an area just off of the Pemberton, but adjacent to Stoneman Wash which was a test site for possible clay mine operations. There are a number of mounds in this area.

Another view of some of these mounds, just after entering Stoneman Wash.

Sarge, taking in some water.

Seed pods on a palo verde tree.

Another interesting tree in Stoneman Wash.

This is a view from near the abandoned car in Stoneman Wash. (I decided not to take yet another photo of the car this time around.) Saguaros in Stoneman Wash:

Linda spotted this rattlesnake. It didn’t let me get very close for a photo.

A view of Weaver’s Needle from Stoneman Wash:

Sarge, getting some more water on the Granite Trail.

Bob noticed that a large cloud bank was casting obvious shadows…

July 11, 2014 / 1 Comment

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob, Linda, and I started from the Horse Staging Area on Friday and hiked a little over 7.5 miles.

Sunrise:

I took this photo from the parking lot, just after sunrise:

A view from the Cinch Trail:

Things are looking mighty brown from the Scenic Trail:

We found this wash which lead us over to the Escondido Trail:

A view from the Escondido Trail:

June 28, 2014 / 4 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob and I hiked up past the Thumbnail Pinnacle to the East End on Friday. We hiked five miles in about five hours, with a total accumulated ascent of over 1800 feet.

A look out towards Four Peaks. Submarine rock is just visible above the rock at the bottom-left of the photo.

Much of the hike followed trails on steep and loose terrain.

Several views of the Thumbnail Pinnacle…

A rock outcropping above the Thumbnail Pinnacle:

Two more views of the Thumbnail Pinnacle from higher up. From this vantage point it sort of looks like a vertical spire (but it’s not).

Looking southwest from the end of the ridge above the Thumbnail Pinnacle…

Once atop the ridge, the East End is fairly close, but it takes quite a while to get there. The ridge is littered with large boulders and prickly vegetation. There is a trail along the top of the ridge, but following it is challenging. We came upon these two saguaros as we were making our way along one side of the ridge. We eventually climbed above the saguaros and then found it easier to go back to the other side of the ridge.

More views of the saguaros from somewhat higher up. I scrambled up a boulder that was well above the saguaro on the left. It was even with the upper part of the saguaro on the right.

A look back at the boulder-strewn ridge from where we came.

Bob and I hiked over to a rock formation known as Goat Hill. This is a view from a rock pile somewhat east of Goat Hill.

We made our way down that rock pile. I took this photo from the “low” area in between the two rock piles.

Bob, standing at the edge (and the top) of Goat Hill.

Bob took a photo of me in the same location.

Descending Goat Hill…

After leaving Goat Hill, we made our way over to the top of Morrell’s Wall (I think). On the way back, we noticed that we had another great view of the Thumbnail Pinnacle. In this shot, I zoomed my lens all the way to 70mm.

A wide angle view from the same location.

Views of Glass Dome, Tom’s Thumb, and Gardener’s Wall as we descended to rejoin the Tom’s Thumb Trail.

June 23, 2014 / 3 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

We hiked the Scenic Trail on Friday; we kept the hike short because several of us had other things that we needed to get done that morning. Bob brought along Sarge and Allen and Janet brought along their dogs, Savannah and Bella.

Sarge (with Bob):

Bella, Savannah, and Sarge, shortly after meeting for the first time. The dogs were very interested in each other, but Bella noticed me squatting down and came over to see what I was doing.

Red Mountain with a very dry desert in the foreground.