Amy released a pair of owls at the Nursery Tank on Saturday night. These were young owls who had been either injured or abandoned. Amy hopes that these owls will stay in the park, hopefully near the Nursery Tank.
This is Nick, the male owl.
Holly, the female owl is bigger, though I didn’t get a shot of her spreading her wings.
Holly was reluctant to leave. Amy had to try a few times to get her to go.
This shot was taken a moment or two before she flew away.
Below is a newly edited photo of the impending storm taken during a hike on September 7, 2012. Those of us on the hike got very wet that day! I was new to editing RAW files back then. I don’t think my initial effort was very good.
Friday’s hike was nearly ten miles in length with over 2,000 feet of total ascent. Eight of us hiked Dixie Mine out to the Sonoran Trail, followed the Sonoran Trail to its end, and then hiked a short ways out on the Promenade Trail. From there we hiked up the Western Loop Trail, stopped briefly at the overlook at the top, and then continued on the Western Loop Trail until it intersected with Promenade. We then hiked back along the shortest route using the Promenade, Sonoran, and Dixie Mine Trails.
Marilyn and Linda wait for everyone to pay up at the iron ranger at the start of the Dixie Mine Trail.
Marilyn and Linda lead the way on the Dixie Mine Trail.
Linda, Marilyn, Vinnie, Renee, Janet, Rob, and Michael on the Sonoran Trail. (Someone correct me if I have any of the names wrong.)
A view from the Sonoran Trail.
Another view from the Sonoran Trail. I did this one in Photomatix, but did not like it, so I redid it in Lightroom and Photoshop.
I think this is still the Sonoran Trail.
A view of Tom’s Thumb in the distance.
This was supposed to be another view of Tom’s Thumb. Unfortunately, I shot everything on Friday at f/4, so there was a significant amount of background blurring due to the focus being on the tree.
A view of Fountain Hills from the top of the Western Loop Trail.
Taking photos from the Western Loop Overlook…
Several views while descending the Western Loop Trail:
I think this was taken from the Promenade Trail.
Taking a break on the Sonoran Trail…
The rain that we got last week is starting to make things green again:
Thirteen of us started from the Wagner Trailhead for Friday’s hike, but over the course of the hike, we broke up into three groups. Janet, Michelle, Nick, and Bob accompanied me through the Bluff Trail Wash to Pemberton and then down Stoneman Wash to Granite at which point we returned on Wagner and Granite. (We took Wagner and Granite on the way out too.)
Group photo; unfortunately, I could not remember the names of everyone who joined the hike this week.
Troon Mountain is lit up off in the distance.
A view of Four Peaks through vegetation along the trail.
This is where Janet, Michelle, Bob, Nick, and I turned off the Granite Trail.
We wait for a time for Robert to catch up with us. While we waited I took this photo of the Granite Trail. The rest of the group that was hiking with us went this way and perhaps those who followed later on did too.
We scramble up these boulders to hike up the wash. (I’ve posted similar photos in the past, but I processed all of this week’s photos with Adobe Lightroom 5 and wanted to see what it was like to edit this photo using LR5.)
A dead tree in the wash…
Janet and Michelle scramble over boulders on their way up the wash.
A narrow passageway through some rocks:
Flowers…
This rock pile is visible from the Pemberton Trail somewhat north of the Bluff Trail intersection with Pemberton.
I saw this small cholla as we hiked the Pemberton over to Stoneman Wash.
A large saguaro just off of the Pemberton Trail. Michelle noticed that there were three buds on one of the arms that sort of looked like eyes and a nose.
A rock formation in Stoneman Wash:
Bob, Janet, Nick, and Michelle hiking Stoneman Wash:
Views of Stoneman Wash…
Twelve of us met on Friday to hike the Scenic Trail. Nick, Janet, Linda, and I continued on, eventually getting in a total of eleven miles for the day.
Midway up the first hill on the Scenic Trail:
Yay! We’re at the petroglyph.
Looking out at the McDowells…
Red Mountain:
Looking east from the Scenic Trail’s ridgeline.
A view to the northeast…
An interesting palo verde tree with Four Peaks in the background:
Linda looks up at a saguaro with lots of arms:
Returning to the Scenic Trail:
A view of the ridgeline that we had hiked earlier in the day:
Eleven miles total!
We met at the Tom’s Thumb Trailhead for Friday’s hike. A new hiker to our group, Marilyn, joined Bob, Amy, Janet, and me for a hike up to Tom’s Thumb.
Below is a view of Tom’s Thumb and the surrounding area in the early morning light.
We saw this cluster of rocks early on, through one of the easier stretches. I think the boulders in the picture below are on private land.
We saw a red-tailed hawk on the top of a rock, just as the trail started getting steep.
Another view of the rock upon which the hawk was perched:
Two views of Troon and Pinnacle Peak, off in the distance:
We got high enough to see a Juniper Tree.
A view to the west taken from the ridge west of Tom’s Thumb:
The East End, the very top of Gardener’s Wall, Glass Dome, Weaver’s Needle, Tom’s Thumb, and the Rist are all visible in this photo.
We noticed that we could see downtown Phoenix from the ridge near Tom’s Thumb. (Scottsdale is the closer community though.)
A view of the west side of Tom’s Thumb. (The camera is looking east.)
Marilyn, Amy, Janet, and Bob approach Tom’s Thumb.
A photo of the five of us on the east side of Tom’s Thumb:
Another pinnacle that we noticed on our descent. (I don’t know the name of it.)
I chose a rocky path for part of our descent…
Marilyn, looking down into the canyon below Gardener’s Wall:
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.
Friday’s Hike started at the Wagner Trailhead. We hiked Wagner to Granite, Granite to the Bluff Trail Wash, the wash to Pemberton, Pemberton to Delsie, Delsie back to Granite, Granite to Wagner, and Wagner to the Trailhead. Total distance was 9.75 miles.
We encountered this wash on the Wagner Trail. This wash sometimes has deep sand in it. When I started mountain biking, I fell while crossing it at least once.
Bob and Sarge:
Approaching the scramble for the Bluff Wash. (That’s not an official name.)
Jerry, Joe, Nancy, Sarge (in front), Bob, and Janet. Tom and Michelle hiked partway with us, but continued their hike on the Granite at the point where we turned into the wash.
A view of the McDowells from the Pemberton Trail.
Saguaros on the Delsie Trail.
A small portion of a buckhorn cholla:
We saw a tarantula while hiking back on the Delsie Trail. I took a lot of photos, but these were the only ones which were close to being in focus. Clearly, I need to work on my technique – I think I’m taking to long to frame the shot after acquiring focus. This works for static scenes, but not very well for moving subjects.
A mountain biker on the Delsie Trail.
Friday’s hike was somewhat over seven miles. We hiked the North Trail, the Chuparosa Trail, and part of the Pemberton (out to Cedar Tank).
One of the things we noticed on this hike is that we’re starting to see fall colors in the ocotillo – many of the leaves had turned a golden yellow color.
We saw more flowers this week too!
Another golden ocotillo…
Linda, Janet, and Nancy examine an unusual saguaro. Most saguaros do not have arms so close to the ground. We thought it interesting, too, that there’s a fairly small arm near the ground.
We saw a rattlesnake sunning itself on the trail.
Linda and Michelle hiking the Pemberton Trail:
We saw a lone equestrian riding her horse on the 168th St Spur.
Yet another golden ocotillo with Four Peaks at the far right, in the background.
An interesting saguaro on the North Trail.
Looking up at the saguaro in the previous picture:
