Ben, Marilyn, Gayle, Laura, Mike, and Marilyn joined me for a hike of nearly 12 miles.  We hiked the South Ridge and the South Wash, returning via Dixie Mine and Pemberton.

Two views of Red Mountain…

The (Fountain Hills) fountain can be seen in this photo!

Looking over the South Wash towards Four Peaks:

This is the other direction, now looking toward the McDowells:

We’re in the wash now, albeit a narrow and shallower part:

Looking towards Four Peaks from the Dixie Mine Trail (near Pemberton). That’s a chain fruit cholla in the foreground.

Another view of Four Peaks, this time from the Pemberton Trail. A bunch of trail runners and mountain bikers had just passed us. You can still see a few of them in this photo.

Roseanne, Dennis, Barb, Nick, Mike, Bob, Linda, Marilyn, Ben, Gayle, and Marilyn joined me for a hike of the Scenic Trail. After hiking the Scenic Trail, Roseanne, Dennis, Bob, Nick, and Marilyn took the short way back to the trailhead while the rest of us hiked Lousley Wash and then Lousley Hill, eventually returning via Escondido and Shallmo Wash. Total hike distance for some of us was 13 miles!

Looking toward the McDowells from the ridge along the Scenic Trail:

This is the group at the top of the hill along the Scenic Trail.

Looking toward Four Peaks from the Scenic Trail:

A view from Lousley Wash:

Looking toward Red Mountain from the top of Lousley Hill:

A Chuparosa bloom in Lousley Wash:

A view from the Escondido Trail:

I don’t know the name of this flower, but we saw several of them along the Shallmo Wash Trail as we neared Pemberton.

Ben, Marilyn, Mike, Jerry, Julie, and Marilyn joined me for a hike starting from the Wagner Trailhead.  It was another “wash day” in which we spent much of the hike in washes.

This is a view of Red Mountain from Stoneman Wash. It doesn’t look especially red in this photo.

Another view of Red Mountain, this time from the Long Loop in the Competitive Track area.

Looking towards the McDowells as we hiked to the Pemberton Trail.

This is the entrance to one of the arroyos that we visited.

This wash has high vertical walls.

Julie, Mike, Jerry, and Marilyn.  (Ben and my wife took a shorter way back.)

The wash narrows at this point, but the walls are not as steep or as high.

We saw this raven atop a saguaro as we headed down the Tonto Tank Trail.

While hiking (again) through Stoneman Wash, we saw this Phainopepla.

On Friday, Jan 10, Linda, Mike, Gayle, Bob, Ann, and Denny hiked out to the Dixie Mine, visiting the tailings, the adit, and the nearby petroglyphs.

Thanks again to Linda for providing me with photos!

On January, the 3rd, Linda, Mike, Gayle, Heather, and Rebecca hiked a 10 mile loop consisting of the Escondido, Pemberton, Scenic, and Cinch trails.

Thanks to Linda for providing me with these photos from the hike!  (I made some color and contrast adjustments.)

On Friday, the 20th, Mike, Linda, Gayle, and I hiked a 12.6 mile loop starting from the Trailhead Staging Area.

Looking toward the McDowells just before crossing Stoneman Wash on the Pemberton Trail:

We saw three hawks atop a saguaro as we crossed the wash:

This is one of the arroyos near the Pemberton Trail:

Another view of the McDowells:

Heading up the Boulder Trail to Marcus Landslide:

A view of part of Rock Knob from the Rock Knob Trail:

Looking back towards Rock Knob (far right) and the rest of the McDowells from near the intersection of Pemberton and Bluff:

This is the first Globe Mallow that I’ve seen this season:

Sandwash Groundsel:

Gayle, making her way down some rocks in Bluff Wash:

Sandy, Laura, Judy, Mike, Gayle, Sara, and Marilyn joined me for a hike starting from the Competitive Track Parking Lot.

We started out on the Technical Loop, and then made our way into Stoneman/Pemberton Wash. Marilyn and Sara, wanting a shorter hike, split off from the rest of the group though at different times. The rest of us continued on, first in the wash, then later on Pemberton to the Dixie Mine Trail. Dixie Mine provided us access to the South Wash which we hiked all the way to the Long Loop, another of the competitive tracks. From there we took the Long Loop up to South Ridge. We encountered perhaps half a dozen mountain bikers while hiking less than half a mile on the Long Loop, so we opted to return via a nearby road. Our total distance for the day was just under twelve miles.

An early morning view from the Technical Loop:

The Technical Loop goes through the tunnel.  The Sport Loop goes between the railings above the tunnel.

Mike and Judy hiking up one of the Stoneman’s feeder washes:

Chain fruit cholla along the Dixie Mine Trail:

We saw a hawk near a now defunct water storage tank. The tank was used back in the days when the land was used for ranching. I looked inside the tank; despite recent rains, it was pretty much dry. A nearby water trough did have water though.

As we approached the tank, the hawk flew away. A nearby raven took its perch on the dead tree.

As we got even closer, the raven flew away too.

Early going in the South Wash; the wash eventually becomes very wide, but the initial section (after turning onto it from Dixie Mine) is fairly narrow with high, steep banks.

The brittlebush is blooming in the wash!  These were the first brittlebush blossoms that I recall seeing this season. (There’ll be many more…)

Looking towards Thompson Peak (and other peaks in the McDowells) from the South Wash…

The chuparosa plants are blooming too!

Looking toward Four Peaks:

Several views from the road which brought us back to the parking area…