Month: August 2015 (page 2 of 2)
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.
Both cats were resting in Marie’s darkened room. The first photo, that of Tiger was at ISO 2000. The second photo, of McGonagall, was taken at ISO 5000. Both were taken at f/1.4 using a 35mm lens. These are some of the first shots taken with my new Sony A7RII. (Marie preferred that I used the cats as test subjects instead of her.)
Taken with my HX90V during my morning ride.
Another moon photo, this time captured with the HX90V.
I got this shot of a saguaro on the Scenic Trail with my HX90V.
Here’s the moon without the clouds:
Friday’s hike started from the Trailhead Staging Area. We went out on the Pemberton towards the pond and explored the washes in that area, returning to the Pemberton via Stoneman Wash. According to Linda’s GPS, we hiked 6.2 miles. (My watch indicated a somewhat greater distance, but it tends to overstate the distance under some circumstances.)
Sunrise:
A view from the Pemberton shortly after setting out.
This is where the Pemberton descends into Stoneman Wash.
Views of some of the formations across from the pond…
There are some high walls in the area.
We came across a spinal column and part of the skull of a large animal. Linda’s post-hike research indicates that these are Javelina remains.
A saguaro with Four Peaks at the left.
A healthy Senna Flower.
Four more saguaros:
We saw this horseshoe and a lot of other junk in one of the washes which feeds Stoneman Wash.
Linda identified this as a coyote melon. It’s slightly larger than a baseball, but very light. The insides are hollow and we could hear seeds rattling around inside when we shook it.
Linda, hiking in Stoneman Wash.
This is the small wash that can be seen to the left just after hiking the Pemberton out of Stoneman Wash towards the Trailhead Staging Area.
