Today’s hike started at the Trailhead Staging Area. In addition to regulars, Bob, Linda, and Janet, two other hikers joined us today: Elma and Connie. Elma and Connie told us that they do a lot of hiking at South Mountain; this was their first visit to McDowell Mountain Park.
We hiked out about a mile on the Pemberton and came back on the Scenic Trail. Total distance for that segment was a little over 4.3 miles.
As we started up the Scenic, I took this photo of the sun coming up over the hill. Tone mapping it gave it an interesting look – the photo was kind of boring otherwise.
A short ways further, I turned around and took a photo of the clouds with Little Granite Mountain (I think) off in the distance.
Janet, Linda, Elma, and Connie:
A view of Four Peaks from midway along the Scenic Trail:
When we got to the wash, Bob pointed out this Red-tailed Hawk:
When we got back to the staging area, Bob found this spider in the bathroom!
Bob, Linda, Janet, and I then started on the second part of our hike. We hiked out the Pemberton in the other direction. Janet turned back just after we crossed Stoneman Wash. (She had other errands to do…)
Bob, Linda, and I continued on and took a look at this wash:
We also hiked a bit of the Tonto Tank Trail. Here is Linda taking a photo of some cacti and an ocotillo at the top of the steep section near the beginning of the trail.
Here’s my own photo of that scene:
Bob, Linda, and I hiked a total of 9.35 miles today.
