Wildflower Addiction — Image by kenne
— kenne
Horned Lizard Near Desert Lupine — Image by kenne
— kenne
Thistle and Bees — Images by kenne
— kenne
Desert Wildflowers — Image by kenne
— Georgia O’Keeffe
Catalina State Park Panorama — Image by kenne
(A record 108 degrees yesterday. Today, [106 degrees] the second hiker in three days was rescued from hiking trails leading from the park. These hikers are in their early twenties and obviously exhibit a high degree of risk taking. )
Rock Squirrel — Image by kenne
This particular rock squirrel seems to prefer the view from a dead tree in Catalina State Park. When first spotted, it was about fifty yards away and because of its size we thought it might be a cat. Moving in closer we could better tell it was not a cat, but a very large squirrel. The body was at least a foot in length with a tail equally as long, making it over two feet from head to tail — we was impressed!
kenne
George Schott (co-leader) & Linda Moraski (leader)
On April 6th, The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a week of hiking in the Tucson area. The first hike started in Catalina State Park, following the Romero Pool Trail in the Push Ridge area of the Catalina mountains. Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists, Tim Ralph and myself, along with Mike Harris, lead guide in the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, shared the roles of hosts and guides for the hiking group from the east. The AMC Adventure Travel group of sixteen was under the leadership of Linda Moraski (leader) and George Schott (co-leader).
Additional postings of the AMC time in Tucson will take place over the next week.
kenne
Images & Video by kenne
(Click on any of the following “tiled” images to see larger views in a slideshow.)
Hiking Sutherland Trail In Catalina State Park — Images by kenne
(Click on any of the tiled images for a larger view in a slideshow format.)
Sonoran Desert Wildflowers Along The Sutherland Trail In Catalina State Park, Arizona — Images by kenne
(Click on any of the above tiled images to see larger view in a slideshow.)
— kenne
Big Rock Saguaros — Image by kenne
— kenne
Morning In Catalina State Park — Image by kenne
Images by kenne
Two fellow hikers taking in the beauty of Hutch’s Pool. This image captures my own feelings. — Images by kenne
Last Friday’s SCVN hike was to Hutch’s Pool, which is one of my favorite hikes. On this particular Friday’s hike, the schedule offered options of either taking the West Fork trail to Hutch’s Pools, or the East Fork trail to Seven Falls via the Bear Canyon trail. Since I was not assigned as one of the guides to Hutch’s Pool, the East Fork option provided my first opportunity to take the loop to Seven Falls.
Friday was a beautiful cool day for an outing, with 31 hikers taking the tram to Stop 9 in Sabino Canyon. The hike from Stop 9 to Hutch’s Pool and back is 8.2 miles. If one decides to not take the tram, then the walk to and from Stop 9 would add another 7.6 miles.
When we arrived at the junction of West & East Forks, although still interested in taking the East Fork to Seven Falls, I thought I would walk the short distance to check out the first of two streams crossing the trail to Hutch’s Pool. The height of the water caused many in the group to turn back. When I decided to cross the stream, that make it easier for our guides to not chance crossing, so I set out to the Hutch’s Pool guiding 13 of the original 31 hikers. Although some of us may have experienced wet feet, it was a fun and challenging hike.
The following photos chronic much of our adventure. Taking the loop from Sabino Canyon to Seven Falls through Bear Canyon back to the Visitor’s Center remains on my list of hikes., as well as staying on the West Fork trail past Hutch’s Pool through Romero Pass to Catalina State Park.
kenne
Click on any of the thumb nails to see a larger image in a slideshow format.
Images by kenne
Last Sunday (November 4, 2012), Tom and I hiked the Baby Jesus Trail near Catalina State Park. This was a very enjoyable hike looking for the Baby Jesus rock without any luck. But, was able to get a lot of photos, which are shared on this posting.
kenne
(Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view of the images.)
While hiking on the Sutherland Trail in Catalina State Park, we spotted this most unusual cristate (or crested) saguaro not far from the trail. Most cristate saguaros have a mutation that forms at the top of the cactus, giving it a crown appearance. At one time, this may have been the case with this saguaro; however, as it grew and aged, its new arms grew taller than the crown. Of course, this is a guess using my limited knowledge of saguaros, especially the mutated ones. Even though I refer to the unusual growth as a mutation, biologists disagree on the cause.
The nest in the cactus is probably that of a Curve-billed Thrasher since they like to build their nest in a dense thorny shrub or a clump of cactus. Click here to see many more images of the rare form of cactus
— kenne
Images by kenne
