Month: July 2012 (page 3 of 6)
Acrylic done in the first 2012 summer painting class. The model that came in that day was named Ivy, and was in costume as a ’60s hippy girl. My father inquired whether I had given this a title yet; since I haven’t thought of anything better, it is called hippy girl. All in all, the painting is kind of scrubby. It isn’t perfect, but still satisfactory, given that it’s my first go at painting people. Two other paintings were completed during the first five-day class.
As reported last week, Marilyn used Craigslist to help find homes for four kittens. Today, she used it to sell the kids’ old bunk bed. She started getting calls within five minutes of posting!
The bed sold to the first caller, a woman from Mesa who had four kids, two of whom were sleeping on the floor. She got a good deal; we had checked Craigslist and found bunk beds selling from $75 to over several hundred. (I think some of them were unrealistic in their expectations.) Anyway, we listed our bunk bed for $75. I’m sure we could’ve gotten more for it, but Marilyn just wanted it out of the house.
Here are the photos, edited by Marie, that Marilyn posted to Craigslist:
A monsoon storm came through the area yesterday afternoon. Just before sunset, Marilyn and I drove to McDowell Mountain Park and walked to the top of the Hilltop Trail to get some photos.
A buckhorn cholla silhouette:
Low clouds (or smoke?) lying low on one of the lower mountains; shiny wet rocks:
Fantastical clouds:
More clouds:
Red Mountain off in the distance:
A saguaro silhouette:
On Wednesday during our week’s stay in the Moab area during June of 2012, we hiked the Moab Rim Trail. Known locally as “Moab’s Stairmaster”, it climbs over eight hundred feet within the first mile. The trail description at the bottom exaggerates a bit, claiming an elevation gain of one thousand feet in a mile. It is popular with some of the locals though because it’s close to town and provides a heck of a workout just hiking up to the rim and back, about two miles total.
The Moab Rim Trail is actually a jeep trail and a very difficult one at that. Here is how the sign at the bottom describes it:
The Moab Rim Route follow the Kayenta sandstone ledge from here to the rim above the town of Moab. The route is used by hikers, bikers, motorcyclists, and jeepers. It gains 1,000 feet in elevation in about a mile. The ledges make it particularly challenging to motorized vehicles. The Moab Rim Route is rated as a “4+” route by the Moab Red Rock Four-Wheelers Jeep Club – its most difficult rating. (4+ trails are not suitable for stock vehicles, and over 10% of modified vehicles can expect “major mechanical difficulties”.)
Hopefully, this shot will help to convey a sense of how steep the first section is. Even though it’s steep, the footing is excellent.
Marie took this photo of her Mom along the way:
Marie took this photo of herself standing on the rim. The town of Moab is in the background.
When I got up to the rim, I saw a plant standing alone with these yellow flowers:
Marilyn and Marie amidst the sandstone:
Marilyn took this photo of Marie hiking along side large potholes in the sandstone.
Marie took this photo of the trail wending its way into a valley.
Marie, admiring the view just shortly before she and her Mom turned around:
I continued on and saw, from afar, this pass through the wall of rock. I don’t know if there is a trail which goes through that pass or not. I’d like to hike closer sometime to find out.
Another view from a bit further on down the trail. At this point, I was perhaps halfway around the loop that would bring back to the girls.
Another shot from the same location:
A shot looking back in the direction from where I had come. I didn’t hike either of those roads visible off in the distance though. But I would like to walk them sometime though.
I eventually met up again with Marilyn and Marie and we hiked back to the rim together. Here’s Marilyn somewhere near the rim:
A view of Arches National Park from the Moab Rim. The arch visible in this photo is the South Window, I think.
Marilyn took this photo of Moab, below, and the La Sals in the distance.
A view of the Colorado River while descending the Moab Rim Trail:
The Aarchway Inn has two nice murals too, but they’re quite a lot more tranquil than a scene of a giant spider chasing a pack of mountain bikers.
With the right optics, you can sort of see these murals all the way from the Moab Rim. This shot, below, was taken with my NEX-7 with the lens all the way out at 200mm. I had to crop it a lot too to get a photo of the motel. That busy highway in this photo is US 191. The area behind the hotel is pretty nice though. There’s an exercise area, a cabana with grill, and some flowerbeds. If you look closely, you can see two murals on the back walls of the north and south wings of the motel.
Here’s the mural on the northernmost wall:
This is the mural on the wall to the south:
A few of the flowers not far from these murals:
Poison Spider Bicycles, in Moab, Utah, has a great mural painted on the side of one of their walls. My daughter used to be scared of the spider when she was little, but enjoyed looking at the scene anyway. My son, of course, was delighted that his sister was scared of the spider, but he enjoyed looking at the mural too. They would sit outside and look at the mural while daddy was in the shop looking around.
I got a photo of the mural this year just as we were leaving town to go home…
This crop shows the interesting part of the scene:
The artist is Terry Klaaren.
In part II, we’ll look at some photos taken by Marilyn and Marie from the Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park. (Part I consisted of only my photos.)
Marie took this photo of sunrise from the parking lot of the Grand Viewpoint:
Marilyn set up her tripod and took several photos from the Grand Viewpoint.
Monument Basin, using a telephoto lens:
Another shot of Monument Basin:
A chipmunk of some kind, maybe.
Me and Marie at another viewpoint not far away from the Grand Viewpoint. If you go to part I, you’ll see two photos that I took from that vantage point.
Four of us met for the fitness hike today in McDowell Mountain Park: Bob, Linda, Janet, and me. Starting at the Wagner Trailhead, we hiked Wagner to Granite where we turned right. We then hiked to the large wash that must be crossed three quarters of a mile or so before coming to the Bluff Trail. This wash feeds into Stoneman Wash, but we turned “upstream” and hiked up the wash until we came to the Pemberton. We then took Pemberton over to Bluff and Bluff back to Granite. From there, we hiked back to the Wagner Trail which took us back to our vehicles. Total distance hiked was a little over seven miles.
We had cloud cover today which kept the temperatures down. A light breeze also helped to keep us cool. The clouds highlighted rays emanating from the sun, producing interesting colors too.
Here is a photo of the wash that we hiked just after leaving the Granite Trail. The colors are kind of funky due to the mode set on the camera.
Here is a photo of Bob, Janet, and Linda:
Here’s another photo of the sky. Four Peaks can be seen at the right in this photo.
