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Tag: McDowell Mountain Park (page 12 of 46)

May 4, 2018 / 8 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Linda, Marlee, and I hiked nearly 10.7 miles on Friday. We hiked up Tom’s Thumb, down East End, left on Windmill, left on Coachwhip, left on Pemberton, and left on Boulder. When we got to the Marcus Landslide Trail, we hiked the interpretive loop before taking it back to the trailhead. Total elevation gain was 1900 feet.

This is a view from the top of the East End Trail:

Marlee and Linda, hiking down the East End Trail:

Prickly Pear Blossom:

A view of Thompson Peak from the Pemberton Trail:

We saw this rabbit just off of the Boulder Trail:

Submarine Rock:

Linda took this photo of me returning from my perch where I took the previous photo.  (Photo Credit: Linda Kalbach.)

The bow (or maybe stern) of Submarine Rock:

The hole / tunnel below Submarine Rock:

Another view of Submarine Rock, this time with Linda and Marlee in the photo to show its size.

One of the mushroom boulders on the Marcus Landslide Trail:

Soon to be blossoms on a saguaro:

April 27, 2018 / 7 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Linda, Nora, Heather, and I hiked a little over 10 miles in the McDowells. We hiked the Dixie Mine, Sonoran, Promenade, and Western Loop Trails.

We saw three snakes on our hike. We have photos of only two of them. The last one, which was too quick for me to get a photo, was a coachwhip.

Shortly after sunrise…

Two barrel cacti – note the two small “arms” on the one on the right.

Despite not being able to see its nose (due to having partially gone into a hole), one of Linda’s friends identified this as a long nose snake. (Photo Credit – Linda Kalbach.)

The thing that surprised us most about this snake was its greenish tinge. We all thought that it might be a Mohave rattlesnake, perhaps even a Mohave Green Rattlesnake, but Heather contacted Mark, the ranger at the Cave Creek Regional Park, who identified it as a Black Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus Molossus).

Ocotillos on the Upper Sonoran Trail:

We paused at the Western Loop Overlook, where I got this photo:

Heather, at the overlook:

Descending the Western Loop Trail…

Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to also hike the Andrews-Kinsey Trail.

The Western Loop Trail eventually splits. We took the right fork where we passed this rock formation first from above and then later on (pictured) from below.

As we neared the Promenade Trail, we got a better view of some new construction.  We think this might be construction for a new trailhead at the end of the Promenade Trail.

We saw this flowering saguaro just off of the Lower Sonoran Trail.

April 24, 2018 / 4 Comments

Tuesday Night Hike

 

April 20, 2018 / 3 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Linda and I hiked a little over eleven miles starting from the Four Peaks / Horse Staging Area.  We hiked part of the Technical Loop and then hit the washes for many miles, returning on the Pemberton and Shallmo Wash Trails.

April 11, 2018 / 0 Comments

Wednesday Night Hike

April 6, 2018 / 0 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s hike started at the Wagner Trailhead. We hiked Wagner, Granite, Delsie, Pemberton, Bluff Trail Wash, Granite, Bluff, Granite, and back on Wagner. Total hike distance was 10.2 miles, but with only 640 feet of total ascent.

Mike, Sara, Tracy, Kay, Kevin, and Bob:

Ranger Amy joined us for some of the hike on her bike.

The skeleton is now sporting a sombrero!

This is the crested saguaro that’s south of Granite Tank.

One of the few flowers – this one is a hedgehog blossom – that we saw on our hike.

Some of the rocks in the wash adjoining the Bluff Trail.

Tracy, Kay, and Sara in the Bluff Trail Wash:

April 4, 2018 / 0 Comments

Tuesday Night Sunset

I took this photo from the Shallmo Wash Trail during Tuesday evening’s hike…

March 4, 2018 / 0 Comments

Sunday Hike – Scenic Trail

Marilyn and I hiked the Scenic Trail on Sunday…

February 23, 2018 / 5 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob, Sara, Mike, Kay, Sunaree, Marilyn, and I hiked a loop of a little over 10 miles starting from the Horse Staging Area.

What a view!

This tree had six owls in it of which three are easily visible in this photo.  If you look very closely, it’s possible to pick out the fourth.  There’s a spot where there might be a fifth owl, but I can’t be sure. I have no idea where the sixth owl was hiding.

This was one of the owls flying down the small gorge through which we hiked. We saw these owls several more times as we made our way down the wash.

Bob, Sara, Mike, Kay, Sunaree, Marilyn, and Kevin:

A relic from the days when this land formed part of a working ranch:

This is a look back at part of the Sport Loop, one of the competitive tracks in McDowell Mountain Regional Park:

February 10, 2018 / 3 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

We hiked 11.6 miles on Friday, following a familiar lasso-loop: Dixie Mine, Coachwhip, Windmill, Bell Pass, Prospector, service road, and Dixie Mine. We also made two short side trips, one to visit a water catchment for wildlife, and the other to the mine and petroglyphs.

Early morning on the Dixie Mine Trail…

A view from the Coachwhip Trail:

There was an ample amount of water in the tank – kind of surprising since we haven’t gotten much recent rain.

When rain falls on the corrugated sheets, it runs downhill to the trough at the bottom. From there it flows through the pipe into the large covered holding tank shown in the earlier photo. That large tank then feeds the smaller tank from which wildlife can drink.

Saguaros on the bank of the wash on our way back to the Windmill Trail:

I was told that I stepped over this gopher snake on our hike through the wash:

A view from the Windmill Trail:

Gayle noticed this colorful rock on the Windmill Trail:

Gayle, Mike Heather, Linda, Marilyn, Marilyn, Nora, and Ben:

Thompson Peak:

Saguaros on the Prospector Trail:

This is the main petroglyph panel:

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