Tag: McDowell Mountain Park (page 3 of 46)

On Friday, the 15th, Mike, Heather, and I hiked 13 miles starting from the competitive track area. Marilyn, Nick, Bob, King, and Yinglan joined us for the first part of the hike. It’s my understanding that they hiked a little over 5 miles.

It was a “wash day”; much of the hike was through washes. This is a view from the Stoneman/Pemberton Wash.

Mike, King, and Yinglan:

A bee on a goldeneye bloom:

Mesquite pods – they seem to be redder than normal:

A view of the McDowells:

Back in the competitive track area – we returned via the latter section of the Technical Loop.

Mike, Sandra, and I hiked nearly 12 miles starting from the Four Peaks Trailhead (which is in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, but nowhere near Four Peaks). We hiked through the competitive track area to the South Wash, taking it northwest to the Dixie Mine Trail. We returned via Pemberton and some roads through the competitive track area.

A view from the parking area. The dead saguaro at the right used to be alive just a few years ago.

A view of Red Mountain from the Long Loop:

We were puzzled by these catchments on the South Ridge. The water that they catch empties out onto the ground nearby. Why bother?

Tarantula in the South Wash:

Sandra gets a closer look at one of the holes in the wall.  She and Mike saw spooky tooth-like formations in the hole…

…which turned out to be a beehive.

Further westward in the wash, we saw butterflies:

Sandra:

There is a corral with some old ranching structures just off of the Dixie Mine Trail. Sandra hadn’t seen them before, so we stopped to take a look. There are some initials carved into the concrete of the watering trough. I think that’s “H.P.”, at the far right for (likely) Henry Pemberton. I don’t have any guesses about the names associated with the other initials.

There’s also a largish water tank in the corral. Just left of the tank is an entrance, choked with vegetation, to a second smaller corral.

This is the smaller corral.  I hadn’t noticed it before.

Sara, Mike, Linda, Marilyn, and Laura joined me for a 10.7 mile hike in the Dixie Mine Area.  (Marilyn and Laura turned back after visiting the mine for a 6.5 mile hike.)

This is the Dixie Mine entrance (though you can’t go in):

Petroglyphs…

Laura, Marilyn, Linda, Mike, and Sara:

Heading up the Prospector Trail:

This is the view shortly after turning onto the Bell Pass Trail from the Prospector Trail:

Linda and I hiked nearly nine miles on a hike starting from the Wagner Trailhead. Marilyn joined us for much of it, hiking perhaps seven miles.

This is a view of the McDowells from the Granite Trail.  I had hoped to hike up the wash through the boulders at the lower right, but erosion has made an already high step to a crucial ledge even higher than it used to be.  (It’s been that way for several years now, but seems to get periodically worse.)

Senna:

I haven’t seen an ant hill this large in quite some time!

Another view of the McDowells; I think we were on the Bluff Trail at this point.

Four Peaks behind the dead tree and boulders…

At this point Linda and I are at the top of the section which has become more difficult to scramble up.  It’s still easy to slide down though.

On Friday, the 27th, Linda and I hiked 10 miles starting from Tom’s Trailhead. We hiked a big loop: Marcus Landslide, Boulder, Pemberton, Coachwhip, Windmill, East End, and down Tom’s Thumb (adding in Feldspar with a return on Marcus Landslide to get us up to 10 instead of just 9).

Sunrise from the parking lot:

An early morning rainbow!

Prominent boulders near Sven Slab:

A view of the McDowells from the Boulder Trail:

As we were hiking up the Coachwhip Trail, I stepped over this rattlesnake, thinking it was a rock.  Linda called my attention to it, allowing me to get this photo…

Two views from the East End Trail…

This is a view of the pinnacle known as “Glass Dome” from near the intersection of the Tom’s Thumb and East End trails.

A view of Gardener’s Wall and Tom’s Thumb as we hiked down Tom’s Thumb Trail:

On Friday, Sept 20, I hiked a little over 13 miles starting from Four Peaks TH (in McDowell Mountain Regional Park). After hiking through the competitive track area, I wound up on Pemberton and then took Dixie Mine to the South Wash. I then hiked this wash back to the competitive track area, taking the Long Loop back to the parking lot.

Four Peaks from the parking lot:

Another parking lot photo, this time of some saguaros with the Superstitions (including Weaver’s Needle and the Flatiron) as the background.

A view of Red Mountain from the Technical Loop:

Looking back towards the Superstitions from my ascent of T-Bone Ridge (still on the Technical Loop):

Another view of Red Mountain as I descend T-Bone Ridge on the west side:

Red Mountain again, but this time I’m in Stoneman Wash:

Looking toward the McDowells from one of Stoneman’s feeder washes:

A view from the Dixie Mine Trail:

In the South Wash now…

We’ve gotten quite a lot of rain since my hike on the 20th, but it has been very dry for a very long time before that. Thus, I was surprised to see these flowers in the wash.

I like the high vertical banks of the South Wash.

The wash goes on and on – perhaps a quarter of the hike takes place in the South Wash.

Mule deer antler:

Looking toward Four Peaks from near the Long Loop:

Looking towards the Superstitions, again from the Long Loop:

Chia:

On Friday, Sept 6, I hiked nine miles on the Dixie Mine and Sonoran trails.

This is a view of the crested saguaro at the parking lot entrance.

A view of Four Peaks on the way to the start of the Dixie Mine Trail. (There’s about 0.7 miles of residential sidewalks to walk between the parking lot and actual trailhead.)

A view of the McDowells:

The route I took provided a good view of Weaver’s Needle!

Saguaros were dense along this hillside.

Looking back down the wash towards the road:

This is the “waterfall”. Seeing bees around one of the puddles at the first landing, I turned around at this point. If you look closely, a few petroglyphs are also visible in this photo.

There’s a cave (which was probably created from mining activity) at the left in this photo.

Mine tailings:

Views from along the Dixie Mine Trail:

When I got to the intersection with the Sonoran Trail, I decided to hike it to the preserve boundary and then a short ways into the preserve. On the way back, I saw a deer!

Dan and I hiked a 10 mile loop starting from Tom’s Thumb Trailhead. We hiked the ridge past Tom’s Thumb and then down East End Trail, returning on Windmill, Pemberton, Boulder, and Marcus Landslide.

Early morning views from the parking lot…

…and early on Tom’s Thumb Trail: