Photo blog featuring outdoor, travel and nature photos.
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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 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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Hot air balloons preparing to lift off this morning over the lake in Fountain Hills, Arizona. This is a fun event to watch, many of the balloonist actually dipped their baskets into the lake as they crossed it. [click to continue…]
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I can’t visit Fountain Hills, Arizona and not photograph the World’s largest fountain! The last light of sun is illuminating the top half of this impressive fountain. [click to continue…]
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I spent the morning photographing landscapes in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park, but I couldn’t pass up two Cardinals who kept flying around near me. [click to continue…]
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Fresh rain brought out the subtle colors in these mostly leafless trees in the Verde River east of Phoenix, Arizona.
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It rained on and off yesterday, but the rain gave way briefly to an incredible, complete rainbow over the Verde River. The people camping next to us thought it was the brightest rainbow they had ever seen, it was certainly bright.
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I’m back to posting photos.
We have now moved up to the Phoenix area. I was almost dreading this portion of our travels because of the big city, traffic etc., but surprisingly, this has turned out to be one of my favorite locations on this trip.
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