Jan 21
Lesley F, Kellie E. and I hiked up the Tom’s Thumb Trail yesterday and found Poppies!!! We had been noticing hundreds of Poppy and Lupine sprouts on the way up but didn’t notice this open flower and one other until the return trip to the Gateway. Very exciting! Barring a hard frost, this might be a fantastic year for Wildflowers. I’m so excited 🙂
Sep 17
I went on my first night herp survey this evening in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Our goal was to reach a riparian area that had a spring. We encountered a Black Tail and a Diamondback rattlesnake, a few Tarantulas and dozens of baby Red Spotted Toads. They were only about 3/8ths of an inch….so cute! All in all, a really exciting time.
Jun 26
While searching for a photo of the day in the desert this morning, I noticed this Hummingbird following me and I was sure I heard “I want to be on your blog today!” 🙂 He was flitting back and forth among the branches of this Desert Hackberry so it was impossible to keep focus so I did what photographers did before auto focus and that’s “pre-focus”. I just manually focused on the center branch tip and kept my finger on the shutter knowing he would fly into focus at some point. You never know what you’ll get but you won’t get anything if you don’t try, right? (Canon 60D, Sigma 18-250mm lens @ 250mm. ISO 200, 1000th sec at f/5.6)
Jun 8
Sunday’s hike took us past many of my favorite boulder faces including Frankenstone.
CLICK HERE to see more of my boulder faces.
Jan 18
I went on a wonderful 8 mile hike yesterday in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve with two fellow wanna-be botanists. We had a blast locating particular species that grow at elevation. My two friends had not done this North to South over the mountain trail so they were ooing and ahhing at the vistas. The scenery was spectacular, as you can see so I’m still in awe every time I do it. This photo shows approximately the half way point as we’re heading down to the trailhead. All in all……a fantastic day with plenty of flower sightings. I think we’re in for a great Spring!
Jan 9
The rider didn’t quite make it to the top but his riding skill was impressive non the less! This is near the junction of the Tom’s Thumb Trail and East End Trail. One of our many favorites for a sunset hike.
Dec 10
Yesterday morning, Chris and I hiked 7 1/2 miles from the North Access parking area to Gateway Trailhead. We started early enough to be welcomed by spectacular light at the top.
Chris (bottom center) walking below two sleeping giants.
Sep 2
Another HDR shot of the Desert Tortoise I encountered on Tom’s Thumb Trail last Sunday. He was moving during this exposure sequence so it was difficult to merge the exposures perfectly. This resulted in lots of ghosting but after tedious cloning and fringe removal and reducing color saturation, I did it. What a face 🙂
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