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.
Susan says:
As usual, great photos–along with fond memories:) Thank you!
October 22, 2013 — 6:34 am
mary p says:
the colors are so vibrant in these pics kevin, beautiful. I love the group pic:))
October 22, 2013 — 7:06 am
Linda says:
Nice group photo……….how did you do that!!! Did you take two pics and grab Amy from one and add her to the one she took? lol, lol Great job!
October 22, 2013 — 10:51 am
Kevin says:
After going through the various photos of the group, both those that I took and the ones that Amy took, I found one, taken by Amy, of the group that I really liked. There was also a decent one that I took of Amy and the group, except that someone was looking away or frowning or something. But Amy looked good in that shot. So I took the one from Amy (which had me in it) and the other one that I took (which had Amy in it) and blended them together. I had to rescale the picture with Amy in it because we had used different zoom settings. Also, even though we took our photos from roughly the same position, things looked different. I had to make a very close selection around Amy in order to place her in the photo with me in it. Often, when I do this, I can get away with using a fuzzy brush to make the mask. But that wouldn’t have worked in this photo. Once I had the mask made, I was able to use it to remove the rest of the photo in which she originally appeared. I also used it to make an Amy-sized hole in the sky layer that I had on top. (Recall that we were in the shade… once I got the exposure set the way I wanted it to be for our faces, the sky was blown out. I processed the image in which I appeared a second time so that the sky had a blue tint to it instead of being totally white.
October 22, 2013 — 11:52 am
Mary says:
Wonderful travalogue! Keep ’em coming!
October 23, 2013 — 1:01 pm