Photo blog featuring outdoor, travel and nature photos.
From the category archives:
Saguaro Lake, Tonto National Forest, Arizona.
Always seems strange to see lakes in such a dry environment.
The normal high here this time of year is 77 degrees – this week it has been pushing records highs, with temperatures in the upper 80’s. Unfortunately it is really cooking the wildflowers. I have been concentrating entirely on scenics with flowers - the travel, city, recreation and wildlife stuff can wait until the wildflowers are gone, which may not be long.
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We have traveled all the way to Globe, and I must say the best wildflowers in the Phoenix area are in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, and out at Saguaro Lake. Granted, there are a lot of areas left for us to explore, I’m sure there are other jewels, but you can’t go wrong with these two locations.
I love the rich colors and textures in the landscape right now. This photo is from McDowell. I hope to post a photo from Saguaro Lake tomorrow.
Check out our Phoenix Photos.
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Mountain biking on the Competitive Trails in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.
I have tried shooting from my bike while using a slow shutter speed before, with poor results. I think having the trail lined with bright, colorful poppies really helped this attempt. These trails are really fun!
Here are more mountain biking photos.
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More McDowell wildflowers. The bright colors in some of the hills are amazing for the desert.
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Chuparosa or Hummingbird-Bush with a Saguaro Cactus, in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.
We had an exciting experience today – saw a Desert Tortoise while mountain biking! The Desert Tortoise spends 95% of its life in a burrow, so it is really exciting to see one. I rode back to my truck and grabbed my camera, but much to my surprise, we were unable to find it again! How can a turtle disappear so fast – I guess that is how it beat the hare. 
So unfortunately, you get a picture of wildflowers today instead of a tortoise – maybe we will find him tomorrow.
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Wildflowers at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, not far from Phoenix, Arizona.
Petal peepers in the Phoenix area won’t be disappointed in this years wildflowers! We were here last year – wow, this looks like an entirely different place! All the green plant life alone is a shocker. There are a wide variety of flowers colorful flowers to be found, a real treat!
The bright colored flowers in the foreground are Purple Owl’s Clover. In the mid-ground is a great patch of poppies, unfortunately they closed up before sunset. You can see the Four Peaks off in the distance, and way off in the distance is a near full moon.
This was another time that a graduated neutral density filter came in handy!
We now have a section of McDowell Mountain Regional Park photos.
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The is from the West District of Saguaro National Park, Arizona.
The wildflowers are looking great here right now! Lots of Brittlebush, Lupine and many other wildflowers. I have never seen this National Park with wildflowers – what a treat!
The West District is further along then the East District right now, but the East side looks really nice as well. One of the best areas is between the Desert Museum and the Visitor Center. This photo was captured near the top of one of the hills in the area. Once I found this composition, we sat and waited about an hour and a half for last light – what a great place to sit and watch.
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Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona.
There are two Saguaro National Parks, Saguaro West and Saguaro East, the East is also known as the Rincon Mountain District. The two are not very close together, they are on opposite sides of Tucson – I will let you guess the direction . This photo is from the East District. I hear the West has better wildflowers right now, I’m going to check it out tomorrow. Gotta say, the East had way more color then I have even seen in my few visits – it was looking great.
It will be nice to have more Saguaro National Park photos.
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Route 66, Arizona.
Even historic Route 66 looks better with wildflowers!
It is hard to believe this little road was once the main East / West highway to California. I explored long sketches of the road through California and Arizona in 2005, and in many places you would rarely see another car. It was kind of fun to try to imagine what this road was like back in its hay day. It had to be some adventure crossing this country, especially in the summer.
Here are more Route 66 photos.
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Poppies in the Arizona Mojave Desert.
Another storm just past through the desert Southwest dumping even more rain! The Phoenix area received an additional inch of rain this past weekend, with even more forecasted for today and tomorrow, this really could be good news for wildflowers in Arizona this spring. Palm Springs also received .6 of an inch of rain. Unfortunately the rain largely missed Anza-Borrego, they officially received .02 of an inch.
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I thought I would share our most recent cover – this just arrived in the mail. Not only is it fun to have a cover, but this Explorer’s Guide to Arizona looks like a great guide – it could come in very handy this winter. We are planning to spend some time in this warm state this winter.
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I thought I would continue the cover theme for a couple more days since we have a nice batch of new ones. This is a photo from Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona during the amazing spring bloom two years ago. This looks really appealing to me right now – in Alaska we currently have mostly dirty snow and leafless trees. Alaska makes a drastic transition in the next couple of months.
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The fountain one day before the full moon in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Here are more Fountain Hills, Arizona Photos.
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I decided to run out to the Tonto National Forest on my last night in Arizona. I was hoping to do a little shooting around Saguaro Lake at sunset. When I got there, I wasn’t surprised to see they charged $6 per vehicle. This is in line with what we had been paying in other Phoenix area public lands and seems fair enough. What surprised me, the nearest place to pay was 12 miles away, a 24 mile round trip to pay my day use fee! [click to continue…]
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Red Mountain is a prominent landmark East of Phoenix, near Mesa, Arizona. [click to continue…]
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This is Nick jumping over my camera while launching off a steep drop. I put a very wide-angle lens (17mm) on my camera and positioned it just below the lip, on the steepest part of the bank and used a remote to fire the camera. Nick then got a run at the drop and launched off this hill and over my camera as I fired it. [click to continue…]
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This series of banked turns in a little draw is one of the funnest sections of McDowell.
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This is Nick Verdisco tearing it up at McDowell! We had a great time shooting with Nick, and I think we got some good stuff. I must admit, I had forgotten about the near full moon and just happened to see it in the corner of my eye while shooting Nick taking a jump. I definitely had to work it into a composition. [click to continue…]
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The mountain biking on the Competitive Track at McDowell Mountain is an absolute blast! Very smooth and fast, with lots of curves, dips and woop-dee-dos! It is no wonder it is the first stop of the National Mountain Biking Series Championship races later this month. [click to continue…]
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We set up some biking shots in Papago Park last night at sunset. [click to continue…]
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