Tag: McDowell Mountain Park (page 34 of 46)

Friday’s hike started from the Lousley Hill Trailhead.  Bob, Allen, Janet, Sarge, Bella, Savannah, and I hiked one lap on Lousley Hill.  We then hiked up Lousley Wash to the Pemberton Trail and took the Escondido Trail back to Lousley Hill Trail, for a four mile hike. I went on to hike another four miles by myself, adding in another lap of Lousley Hill along the way.  As I was hiking down Lousley Hill, I noticed that my total ascent was at around 700 feet.  I hiked up and down a steep(ish) section of the hill two times to bring the total ascent up to 1,000 feet for the day.

A view of the sunrise from near the Trailhead:

Allen, Janet, and Bob, with dogs Savannah, Bella, and Sarge part way up the Lousley Hill Trail.

Lousley Wash:

A water break for dogs on Lousley Wash:

Hiking Lousley Wash…

A large, many-armed saguaro on the Escondido Trail.

A hedgehog cactus:

More saguaros on the Escondido Trail:

Another hedgehog cactus next to the remains of a cholla:

Rocks encountered along the Escondido Trail…

A view of Red Mountain in the distance.

Returning on the Escondido Trail:

A view of the overlook on Lousley Hill.  If you look very closely, you can just make out a railing at the overlook. A palo verde tree near the top of Lousley Hill:

Bob and I hiked the Dixie Mine Trail out to the service road for the antenna towers.  We then hiked up to the Prospector Trail and took the first wash down towards the mine. There were a large number of bees around the pools of water at the waterfall, so we worked our way around the waterfall via a different path.  We eventually did end up at the mine and the petroglyphs before hiking back.  Total distance today was only 6.5 miles.

This is the crested saguaro at the trailhead parking lot.

Another photo at the trailhead:

This is the wash just off the Prospector Trail: A look back at a fun rock upon which to scramble:

Still in the wash…

A view from the top of the (mostly dry) waterfall.

A view looking down upon the same area in the previous picture.  We had gained quite a lot of elevation between the previous shot and this one.

A view of the mine.  If you look closely, you can see the metal protective grate over the mine shaft at the top of the tailings.

A photo of the main petroglyph panel:

As I was leaving the mine area, I noticed what appeared to be a large, very textured root.

We saw flowers on the way back.  We were both surprised by this because, although we’ve gotten rain recently, the highs have been over 110 degrees.  The flowers did look somewhat wilted.

A view from the Dixie Mine Trail:

Sarge, Bob, Linda, and I hiked seven miles on Friday.  Starting from the Wagner Trailhead, we walked across the street and took Tortoise to Pemberton, Pemberton to Stoneman Wash, Stoneman Wash to the Bluff Trail Wash, Bluff Trail Wash to Granite, Granite to Wagner, and Wagner back to the trailhead.  (The Bluff Trail Wash feeds into Stoneman Wash.  The Bluff Trail overlooks this wash.)

I arrived at the trailhead just after sunrise, but fortunately, there were some nice clouds obscuring the sun, giving me this shot:

A view from the Tortoise Trail.  Weaver’s Needle is barely visible in the distance.

This is a view from the Pemberton as it descends into Stoneman Wash.  Red Mountain is visible in the distance.

There’s an area just off of the Pemberton, but adjacent to Stoneman Wash which was a test site for possible clay mine operations.  There are a number of mounds in this area.

Another view of some of these mounds, just after entering Stoneman Wash.

Sarge, taking in some water.

Seed pods on a palo verde tree.

Another interesting tree in Stoneman Wash.

This is a view from near the abandoned car in Stoneman Wash.  (I decided not to take yet another photo of the car this time around.) Saguaros in Stoneman Wash:

Linda spotted this rattlesnake.  It didn’t let me get very close for a photo.

A view of Weaver’s Needle from Stoneman Wash:

Sarge, getting some more water on the Granite Trail.

Bob noticed that a large cloud bank was casting obvious shadows…

Bob, Linda, and I started from the Horse Staging Area on Friday and hiked a little over 7.5 miles.

Sunrise:

I took this photo from the parking lot, just after sunrise:

A view from the Cinch Trail:

Things are looking mighty brown from the Scenic Trail:

We found this wash which lead us over to the Escondido Trail:

A view from the Escondido Trail:

Friday’s hike started at the Wagner Trailhead.  We hiked a bit over seven miles total.

A view of Four Peaks from the Wagner Trail.

We came across a rattlesnake, but it moved quickly – I didn’t get a very good photo of it.

A couple of rock formations that we saw along the way…

Janet, Linda, Allen, and Bob hiking Stoneman Wash:

Bob, Linda, Michael, and JoAnne hiked the North and Verde Trails on June 6.  Bob tells me that they hiked somewhat over five miles that day.

Michael Mandracchia took all of the photos below. (Michael’s captions can be viewed by hovering the mouse cursor over each photo. I don’t know if these captions will show up for tablet users.)

Linda, Marilyn (from Canada), Michael, Joanne, and I met at the Horse Staging Area where we hiked the Escondido Trail.  We threw in Lousley Hill and a the hilly portion of the Scenic Trail to make it even more of a fitness hike.  Total distance was 9.34 miles.

A view of Four Peaks from the Escondido Trail:

A group of four saguaros on the Escondido Trail: More saguaros in Lousley Wash.  (This might not be the official name of that wash.) Marilyn suggested these two shots looking up a saguaro (or perhaps a pair of saguaros) along the Escondido Trail.

She also suggested this shot where the sun was hidden behind one of the saguaro’s arms.

As we made our way over to the Scenic Trail, we saw this hawk sitting atop a saguaro.

A view of Red Mountain from the Scenic Trail.

Blooms on a barrel cactus near the end of our hike.

Friday’s hike started from the Trailhead Staging Area.  We hiked out on the Pemberton and took Stoneman wash to one of its feeders, where we hiked up that wash back to Pemberton.  From there we hiked through a small and twisty canyon.  We returned via the Tonto Tank Trail and the Pemberton.  Total distance was only six miles.

Bob and Sarge descend a small hill towards Stoneman Wash.

This section of Stoneman Wash is amazingly firm, probably due to the hardened clay beneath a thin layer of sand and stone. We took this photo by a large dead tree in the Stoneman feeder wash.  From left to right are Nancy, Michael, Joanne, Linda, Kim, Jim, Bob, Sarge, Venie, Carrie, and Hailey.  (I’ve probably misspelled some names.) Joanne spotted this antler in the wash.

A view of the clay pit from the Pemberton.  It’s my understanding that this was the site of a test dig for a clay mine at one point in the past.

A view from another wash accessed from the Pemberton.

The terrain became more interesting as we went.

Bob and Sarge passing an undercut section of the wall.

The wash narrowed as we went.  We eventually got to a point where we has to push the branches of a small palo verde tree aside to get through.

Michael, who is much taller than I am, took this photo of the top of a blooming saguaro while I pulled down the branch of palo verde tree blocking the view.

Four Peaks:

Another view of Four Peaks:

Red Mountain:

The remains of an uprooted saguaro:

Weaver’s Needle is visible in the distance in this photo.  The Flat Iron, which is also in the Superstitions, can also be seen at the far right.  (It’s so far right, that it’s almost out of the picture.)