Today's hike is at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. We started at the Granite Mountain Trailhead. We hiked out on the Bootlegger Trail up to the Scenic View. That's where Debbie left us to hike all the way around Granite Mountain. George, Christy & I hiked back along the Granite Mountain Loop Trail. This was a perfect weather day and a very colorful hike.
Not far from the trailhead and the fat guy pictured in shadow form is already falling behind.
This hike has so many interesting things to photograph. Since we are hiking up Granite Mountain, there are huge boulders scattered along the trail...
....which has so many interesting desert plants.
The Saguaro Cactus grow tall here.
I only appear in shadow form today.
Colors all over the mountain today.
I think George stayed with Christy and me to make sure we made it back to the car.
Still hiking up Granite Mountain.
More colors along the trail.
I used George for perspective on the height of this Saguaro. Then didn't get the whole cactus in the photo.
This Saguaro was thick. I liked the blue sky as a backdrop for this photo.
Even Cactus have feelings. It looked to me like the dying Saguaro is hugging the living one which is holding it up.
At times during this hike, I had no idea where the rest of my group was until I spotted them along the trail.
The deep blue sky happens when shooting with the sun at my back...
...the light blue sky is when I shoot into the sun.
The scenery along these trails was amazing in every direction.
Teddy-bear Cholla
The Teddy-bear Cholla seems to grow more in the flat desert areas at the base of Granite Mountain.
I played around with some black & white shots. This one looked better in B&W.
I finally found George & Christy.
Now I lost Christy who is ahead of George and me. We are talking and I'm taking pictures as we walk down the trail. I am ahead of George.
Then I hear something hiss followed by a distinct rattling sound.
I jump as high as a fat white boy can and start high-stepping it down the trail. George says it coiled up and started to lunge at me but then retracted. I went back to take this photo because I'd never gotten a photo of a rattlesnake. The snake slithered away soon after this photo.
Once my heart stopped racing, we continued walking back to the trailhead.
The colorful Granite Mountain
The Saguaro is an endless source of amazement.
We found Christy on our way back down.
Then we found Debbie and this friendly lady with her horse.
She asked me to take a picture of her and the horse. After talking with the stewards who volunteer at the trailheads. We headed back to Hotel Arizona to clean up for our next adventure.
We spent the afternoon at Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
We had a lot of fun with the group sitting behind us. One of them was obviously from Boston and made me laugh whenever he spoke.
The home team beat the Brewers...
...and we drove back to Deb & George's house in this old bullpen car.
No comments:
Post a Comment