Tag: McDowell Mountain Park (page 27 of 46)

Bob and I hiked a little over 12 miles with 2100 feet of elevation gain starting from the Dixie Mine Trailhead at the end of Golden Eagle Blvd. We hiked Dixie Mine to Coachwhip, Coachwhip to Windmill, Windmill to Bell Pass, and Bell Pass to Prospector. As we were descending Prospector, we hiked up an old road leading to a prominent ridge. When we got to the end of the road, we continued following an lesser used trail to the summit. When we returned to Prospector, we hiked back to the service road, then down the road to the Dixie Mine Trail, which lead us back.

This is an early morning view as we hiked through Eagle’s Nest, a gated community which is in between the parking area and the actual start of the Dixie Mine Trail. I normally try to avoid pictures of sidewalks and roads, but I thought the clouds and the golden mountains in the distance made for a good picture.

A view of the McDowells from the Dixie Mine Trail.

Prickly Pear on the Coachwhip Trail:

Bob saw this rattlesnake on the Bell Pass Trail. I walked right by it without seeing it!

Our photography eventually woke it up…

Bob, on our way back from our side trip to the top of one of the ridges.

I saw these small cacti growing out of the rock at the top of the ridge.

We also saw this small but healthy ocotillo atop the ridge.  It doesn’t seem to me that it would get enough water atop the ridge, yet somehow it’s remarkably green!

This is a view from the Prospector Trail of the ridge that we had summited. We were definitely not the first to visit the top of that ridge – we saw a folding chair at the top.

Saguaros on the Prospector Trail:

Bob, hiking back on the Dixie Mine Trail.

We saw this bunny early in our hike. (These two photos come at the end since they were taken with the Sony HX90V.  The HX90V has a much longer zoom than the RX100M3, but its image quality is not as good.)

We saw this horned lizard on the Bell Pass Trail, not far away with the intersection of the Prospector Trail.

Linda, Bob, and I hiked nine miles today on the Long Loop in the Competitive Track Area. The Long Loop is actually only eight miles long, but we began and ended across the road in the Horse Staging Area.

Slightly before sunrise…

Views from the Long Loop…

Linda and Bob hiking down one of the steeper hills on the Long Loop:

We saw these quail towards the end of the Long Loop:

When we got back to the parking lot, we were slightly shy of nine miles for the day. We hiked across the lot to add the distance necessary for nine miles. We saw this skull fragment as we were walking back to our vehicles.

Bob and I hiked about 10.5 miles on Friday. Perhaps six miles of our hike was in washes. The rest was on the Pemberton.

Just before sunrise; I took this from the side of the road just after driving into the park.

We had some interesting clouds at the start of the hike.  This shot is was taken from the Pemberton, prior to entering Stoneman Wash.

A similar shot, taken from within Stoneman Wash.

This is one of the clay pits off of the Pemberton.

More wash photos.  This is one of the larger washes which feeds into Stoneman Wash.

Large Saguaros in front of the McDowells:

We hit the Pemberton again, and then returned via another wash.

This is another view of the clay pit on the way back.

We saw several deer and several owls on our hike.  This is the only wildlife photo that I managed to get on Friday:

Bob and I hiked a little over nine miles on Friday, starting from the Wagner Trailhead.  Ranger Amy accompanied us for the first two miles of the hike.

Sunrise:

Prickly pear at sunrise.

We saw rain showers in the distance as we began our hike.  We eventually hiked in the rain for a short while, but it was a light, pleasant rain. When I got back, Rand and Mark told us that it had rained hard in other parts of the park.

This is a view from the road between the campground and the maintenance compound.

Agave:

Ranger Amy found a piece of bone. It was perhaps six inches long.

A view from the Bluff Trail.

Amy and Bob chatted while I took pictures. (I tried following a coyote that we had seen a few minutes earlier.)

Lichen covered rocks:

This beetle (?) was a bit more than two inches in length. It was very active, making it difficult to get a photo. The only time is settled down was when it attached itself to Bob’s shoe.

Dead tree:

Funnel web:

This large boulder looks unremarkable unless viewed from just the right angle; only than can one see that it’s fairly narrow at the base.

The following two photos were taken with the HX90V.

We saw this cardinal while walking through the campground. He would attempt to get a drink of water from the faucet from time to time. 

Bob and I thought this was a raven at first, but then we noticed that the head wasn’t black. In fact, it doesn’t have much black at all, but it was difficult to see this from our location.  I processed the +1EV exposure for this one, allowing us to see detail that is otherwise quite dark.

I told Amy about it when I got back. She suggested that it might be a Harris Hawk, but I wasn’t able to see enough detail in person to know for certain.  Now that I have the photo processed, I’m fairly certain that it is a Harris Hawk.