Month: October 2013 (page 1 of 1)

We met at the Tom’s Thumb Trailhead for Friday’s hike.  A new hiker to our group, Marilyn, joined Bob, Amy, Janet, and me for a hike up to Tom’s Thumb.

Below is a view of Tom’s Thumb and the surrounding area in the early morning light.

We saw this cluster of rocks early on, through one of the easier stretches.  I think the boulders in the picture below are on private land.

We saw a red-tailed hawk on the top of a rock, just as the trail started getting steep.

Another view of the rock upon which the hawk was perched:

Two views of Troon and Pinnacle Peak, off in the distance:

We got high enough to see a Juniper Tree.

A view to the west taken from the ridge west of Tom’s Thumb:

The East End, the very top of Gardener’s Wall, Glass Dome, Weaver’s Needle, Tom’s Thumb, and the Rist are all visible in this photo.

We noticed that we could see downtown Phoenix from the ridge near Tom’s Thumb. (Scottsdale is the closer community though.)

A view of the west side of Tom’s Thumb.  (The camera is looking east.)

Marilyn, Amy, Janet, and Bob approach Tom’s Thumb.

A photo of the five of us on the east side of Tom’s Thumb:

Another pinnacle that we noticed on our descent.  (I don’t know the name of it.)

I chose a rocky path for part of our descent…

Marilyn, looking down into the canyon below Gardener’s Wall:

We hiked the Scenic Trail for last Friday’s hike.  When we were done with the Scenic Trail, Marilyn, Linda, Nancy, Janet, and I hiked another five miles, visiting the Tortoise enclosure and the wreck of the old Chevy along the way.  Our total distance was around 9.5 miles.

Red Mountain as seen from the Scenic Trail:

Another view of Red Mountain with some large saguaros in the foreground:

Amy and I took this group photo in the wash just off of the Scenic Trail.  (The Scenic Trail used to be routed through this wash.)  From left to right are Amy, Nancy, Linda, Janet, Linda, Marilyn, and Kevin.

Rand told me that the friendly tortoise in the enclosure is named Scarlett.  She crawled toward us and opened her mouth several times during our visit.  I think she wanted us to feed her.   (I learned from Amy, later on, that this tortoise’s name is actually Alice.  There is another tortoise named Scarlet in the enclosure.)

This is the saguaro that’s at the intersection of the Wagner and Granite trails.  The McDowell mountains are in the background.

Stoneman Wash:

This is the old Chevy in Stoneman Wash.

Friday’s Hike started at the Wagner Trailhead.  We hiked Wagner to Granite, Granite to the Bluff Trail Wash, the wash to Pemberton, Pemberton to Delsie, Delsie back to Granite, Granite to Wagner, and Wagner to the Trailhead.  Total distance was 9.75 miles.

We encountered this wash on the Wagner Trail.  This wash sometimes has deep sand in it.  When I started mountain biking, I fell while crossing it at least once.

Bob and Sarge:

Approaching the scramble for the Bluff Wash.  (That’s not an official name.)

Jerry, Joe, Nancy, Sarge (in front), Bob, and Janet.  Tom and Michelle hiked partway with us, but continued their hike on the Granite at the point where we turned into the wash.

A view of the McDowells from the Pemberton Trail.

Saguaros on the Delsie Trail.

A small portion of a buckhorn cholla:

We saw a tarantula while hiking back on the Delsie Trail.  I took a lot of photos, but these were the only ones which were close to being in focus.  Clearly, I need to work on my technique – I think I’m taking to long to frame the shot after acquiring focus.  This works for static scenes, but not very well for moving subjects.

A mountain biker on the Delsie Trail.

Friday’s hike was somewhat over seven miles.  We hiked the North Trail, the Chuparosa Trail, and part of the Pemberton (out to Cedar Tank).

One of the things we noticed on this hike is that we’re starting to see fall colors in the ocotillo – many of the leaves had turned a golden yellow color.

We saw more flowers this week too!

Another golden ocotillo…

Linda, Janet, and Nancy examine an unusual saguaro.  Most saguaros do not have arms so close to the ground.  We thought it interesting, too, that there’s a fairly small arm near the ground.

We saw a rattlesnake sunning itself on the trail.

Linda and Michelle hiking the Pemberton Trail:

We saw a lone equestrian riding her horse on the 168th St Spur.

Yet another golden ocotillo with Four Peaks at the far right, in the background. An interesting saguaro on the North Trail.

Looking up at the saguaro in the previous picture: