94 posts tagged “arizona”
Slowly, but surely, Carol is changing from city girl to "Cactus Carol", girl from the wild, wild west.
On New Year's Day, Carol and Jessica went horse back riding in the local mountains of Cave Creek.
On New Year's Day, Carol and Jessica went horse back riding in the local mountains of Cave Creek.
Click the photo to read more about our hike.
Slowly...but surely...I am turning Carol into a mountain woman. Click the photograph and come on over and read about it.
I was digging through my photographs today and came upon a few shots of my Harley-Davidson just before we sold it.
The original of this shot was kind of boring so I thought I would play with it in Photoshop and see if I could create anything with it.
The original was a photograph with my step-son sitting on the bike with the lights on. I darkened the photograph, added a frosted glass texture and then put an eerie blue light around his torso to create a ghost like appearance.
I call this "The Ghost Rider". Here is the full size edition of the photograph.
Do you like it?
The original of this shot was kind of boring so I thought I would play with it in Photoshop and see if I could create anything with it.
The original was a photograph with my step-son sitting on the bike with the lights on. I darkened the photograph, added a frosted glass texture and then put an eerie blue light around his torso to create a ghost like appearance.
I call this "The Ghost Rider". Here is the full size edition of the photograph.
Do you like it?
The monsoon season is officially over here in Arizona. Here in N. Scottsdale we received a little over 4 inches of rain, while the airport received only .69 inches of rain.
We are a little over 1,000 feet higher than the airport and also nestled right at the foot of the mountains so our climate tends to be a bit different from the bottom of the valley.
This particular photograph was taken outside our front door during a recent monsoonal sky.
With today being Labor Day, we thought we would meander off into the wilderness and do some off road adventures. Today we got way more than we expected.
First of all, I recently put some new off road tires on the old Benz so that she could handle the rocky terrain. After much research we decided on the Pirelli Scorpion ATR.
For today's adventure, we decided to traverse the Buckhorn Creek Trail which starts in Wickenburg (about 40 miles down the road) and ends up near Lake Pleasant which is about 20 miles down the road.
Everything started out just fine. We were moving quite well across what started out as primarily sand and washes.
Eventually we started our climb from 2,400 feet to around 4,500 feet. As we progressed the road started to worsen and was strewn with very loose boulders from a recent grader going through. To top this off, the map was nowheres near as easy to follow as we would have liked. There were roads seemingly going every which way with no signs.
Eventually we came down into a wash and found ourselves surrounded by cattle. Thankfully we saw a man working on a backhoe in the wash. He shut down the backhoe and hollered, "Can I help you?" "Yeah, I said, where the heck are we?" He shook his head, and must have been laughing at the city slickers driving around in the Mercedes. "You are in my cattle corral", he hollered.
The words pierced my sense of manhood as I looked around to find myself indeed in a fenced corral surrounded by cattle. Carol gave me THE LOOK! "Hmmm....how the heck did we get in here", I said.
With a very red face, I turned the ole Benz around and high tailed it out of the man's corral. I can just hear him talking to his wife tonight, "Honey, you won't believe it, some city slickers in a Mercedes Benz 4x4 drove right into our corral today! You should have seen it."
After this experience, we were soon to learn that our spine chilling adventures were not over. As we began to climb into the very rough mountain terrain, we began to notice that there were roads going in many different directions with no markings. We started to look at each other, "do you know where we are?" 'NO, do you know where we are"?
For the next two hours we plodded along very rough mountainous terrain all the while wondering if we would ever see civilization again, or would they find us months from now with our hands around each others throats.
Eventually we hit the summit and started our way down the other side of the mountain only to find that the next 90 minutes would be spent in a monstrous river wash strewn with huge boulders just waiting to rip the undersides out of our vehicle. To top that off, it made finding the road (road hell, this isn't a road...it's a damn river bed!) even more difficult. Quietly Carol and I began to contemplate the fact that we would never be found again.
About 45 minutes into this particular form of hell we found ourselves faced with another situation that we hadn't thought of. There was a very peculiar toothless man, about 60 years old driving around in this beat to heck red Ford pickup truck with a girl in her 20's beside him. We found ourselves in a box canyon with good old "gummy" bearing down on us. All of a sudden...I could hear the screeching music from some horror movie and could visualize this old coot hauling out his shotgun, blowing our brains out and burying us right there! Carol was petrified.
He came up along side us. I rolled the window down, and once again, had to admit to a stranger that I was as lost as one could possibly be. He looked at me, smiled with his toothless grin and said, "just keep following the wash down the mountain." Great....more river washes to drive in! To add to the suspense, this guy keep appearing out of nowhere to keep Carol in a constant state of fear.
Our map said that this journey would be 2 hours of easy trails (2 out of 10, with 10 being impassible). Six stressed filled hours later, we found ourselves on a road which bespoke civilization. 45 minutes further we found ourselves on a major highway headed for home.
Just for fun, I asked Carol when she would like to go out again. You DON'T want to know her answer!
First of all, I recently put some new off road tires on the old Benz so that she could handle the rocky terrain. After much research we decided on the Pirelli Scorpion ATR.
For today's adventure, we decided to traverse the Buckhorn Creek Trail which starts in Wickenburg (about 40 miles down the road) and ends up near Lake Pleasant which is about 20 miles down the road.
Everything started out just fine. We were moving quite well across what started out as primarily sand and washes.
Eventually we started our climb from 2,400 feet to around 4,500 feet. As we progressed the road started to worsen and was strewn with very loose boulders from a recent grader going through. To top this off, the map was nowheres near as easy to follow as we would have liked. There were roads seemingly going every which way with no signs.
Eventually we came down into a wash and found ourselves surrounded by cattle. Thankfully we saw a man working on a backhoe in the wash. He shut down the backhoe and hollered, "Can I help you?" "Yeah, I said, where the heck are we?" He shook his head, and must have been laughing at the city slickers driving around in the Mercedes. "You are in my cattle corral", he hollered.
The words pierced my sense of manhood as I looked around to find myself indeed in a fenced corral surrounded by cattle. Carol gave me THE LOOK! "Hmmm....how the heck did we get in here", I said.
With a very red face, I turned the ole Benz around and high tailed it out of the man's corral. I can just hear him talking to his wife tonight, "Honey, you won't believe it, some city slickers in a Mercedes Benz 4x4 drove right into our corral today! You should have seen it."
After this experience, we were soon to learn that our spine chilling adventures were not over. As we began to climb into the very rough mountain terrain, we began to notice that there were roads going in many different directions with no markings. We started to look at each other, "do you know where we are?" 'NO, do you know where we are"?
For the next two hours we plodded along very rough mountainous terrain all the while wondering if we would ever see civilization again, or would they find us months from now with our hands around each others throats.
Eventually we hit the summit and started our way down the other side of the mountain only to find that the next 90 minutes would be spent in a monstrous river wash strewn with huge boulders just waiting to rip the undersides out of our vehicle. To top that off, it made finding the road (road hell, this isn't a road...it's a damn river bed!) even more difficult. Quietly Carol and I began to contemplate the fact that we would never be found again.
About 45 minutes into this particular form of hell we found ourselves faced with another situation that we hadn't thought of. There was a very peculiar toothless man, about 60 years old driving around in this beat to heck red Ford pickup truck with a girl in her 20's beside him. We found ourselves in a box canyon with good old "gummy" bearing down on us. All of a sudden...I could hear the screeching music from some horror movie and could visualize this old coot hauling out his shotgun, blowing our brains out and burying us right there! Carol was petrified.
He came up along side us. I rolled the window down, and once again, had to admit to a stranger that I was as lost as one could possibly be. He looked at me, smiled with his toothless grin and said, "just keep following the wash down the mountain." Great....more river washes to drive in! To add to the suspense, this guy keep appearing out of nowhere to keep Carol in a constant state of fear.
Our map said that this journey would be 2 hours of easy trails (2 out of 10, with 10 being impassible). Six stressed filled hours later, we found ourselves on a road which bespoke civilization. 45 minutes further we found ourselves on a major highway headed for home.
Just for fun, I asked Carol when she would like to go out again. You DON'T want to know her answer!
Yesterday we spent the day in the Tonto National Forest.
Here is a slide show of some of the highlights.
We are experiencing our third monsoonal rain storm here in North Scottsdale. We were out of town for the first one, were driving in the second one and the third one is happening as I type.
The amount of rain that is coming down is completely overwhelming the drainage systems and we have a few inches of water up to the foundation in several spots. I am not certain if that is bad or not! The pool is filling up quickly and we are beginning to wonder if the pool isn't going to overflow as well.
I have never seen such a downpour of rain for such a sustained period of time. We got in the 4x4 and went out into the neighborhood to see what is going on.
It was dark so I couldn't photograph it but there are RIVERS of water flowing across many of the streets. When I say rivers, I mean the fast flowing, three feet deep varieties. I can see how and why people get washed away with these things. It is an incredible thing to see.
The movie you see here isn't very good because I was primarily focused on the water around the house. Which by the way, didn't show up very well. If you pay attention in the beginning you can see that we are also experiencing high winds with the storm as well. AND...what the heck is with the flat roof on certain sections of this house. I don't understand. There is a flippin' river of water flowing off of my roof right on to my deck and then collecting around the house. Why on earth they don't channel that water away from the foundation I will never understand. Perhaps there is some logic that I just don't understand.
Anyway, exciting times for these first timers here. Certainly not death defying like the tornadoes in the Midwest, but stressful nonetheless. Oh..you can also hear sirens all over the place. I am sure that there are dingbats all over town out trying to drive across the torrential rivers flowing across the roads. Every time it does this, we get to see some goof ball standing on top of their car getting rescued in the middle of the wash. Watching the news tonight will be fun.
The amount of rain that is coming down is completely overwhelming the drainage systems and we have a few inches of water up to the foundation in several spots. I am not certain if that is bad or not! The pool is filling up quickly and we are beginning to wonder if the pool isn't going to overflow as well.
I have never seen such a downpour of rain for such a sustained period of time. We got in the 4x4 and went out into the neighborhood to see what is going on.
It was dark so I couldn't photograph it but there are RIVERS of water flowing across many of the streets. When I say rivers, I mean the fast flowing, three feet deep varieties. I can see how and why people get washed away with these things. It is an incredible thing to see.
The movie you see here isn't very good because I was primarily focused on the water around the house. Which by the way, didn't show up very well. If you pay attention in the beginning you can see that we are also experiencing high winds with the storm as well. AND...what the heck is with the flat roof on certain sections of this house. I don't understand. There is a flippin' river of water flowing off of my roof right on to my deck and then collecting around the house. Why on earth they don't channel that water away from the foundation I will never understand. Perhaps there is some logic that I just don't understand.
Anyway, exciting times for these first timers here. Certainly not death defying like the tornadoes in the Midwest, but stressful nonetheless. Oh..you can also hear sirens all over the place. I am sure that there are dingbats all over town out trying to drive across the torrential rivers flowing across the roads. Every time it does this, we get to see some goof ball standing on top of their car getting rescued in the middle of the wash. Watching the news tonight will be fun.
We have found in our travels that Arizona has a substantial quantity of ancient ruins to visit. We have visited sites of the Hohokam, the Mogollon, and the Anasazi which are the three primary cultures of the American Southwest.
The arid climate does a nice job of preserving these sites of antiquity and makes for a fascinating adventure as you stroll through cliff dwellings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old.
In my never ending thirst to learn and understand, I recently picked up "Ancient Peoples Of The American Southwest", by Stephen Plog. I am finding it to be a fascinating read which is considerably more intriguing as we stand in some of the sites mentioned in the book.
I suspect that we will search out lectures and perhaps even an an archaeological field trip one of these days.
The arid climate does a nice job of preserving these sites of antiquity and makes for a fascinating adventure as you stroll through cliff dwellings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old.
In my never ending thirst to learn and understand, I recently picked up "Ancient Peoples Of The American Southwest", by Stephen Plog. I am finding it to be a fascinating read which is considerably more intriguing as we stand in some of the sites mentioned in the book.
I suspect that we will search out lectures and perhaps even an an archaeological field trip one of these days.
Carol and I are on another road trip. We left yesterday around noon and drove to Kayenta, Arizona which is in the Navajo Nation. The drive was incredibly beautiful and left us in awe with all the different landscapes that we drove through.
First thing this morning we were up and driving through Monument Valley. Words can not begin to describe the beauty we beheld. My hope is that a few of my photographs are worthy.
I have around 88 photographs to sort through and I will post the best of them on my flickr account. If you click this photograph you will be whisked to my flickr account. Check back in the next few weeks and I post more of our trip.
