Friday Fitness Hike

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.