Resurrection Plant, Arizona Spike-Moss (Selaginella Arizonica) — Images by kenne
The desert floor has a lot of low-growing plants that are brown during the dry season, but quickly turned green after rain, appearing to rise from the dead. After our recent rains, the desert had a lot more green on this mornings hike in the Tucson Mountains.
kenne
Image by kenne
As the fall sunsets continue to move toward the winter solstice, our view here in the Catalina foothills each evening to more to the southwest over the Tucson Mountains. The desert temperatures drop quickly as neighbors gather to watch nature’s kaleidoscope of colors — a great time for a hot toddy with Maker’s Mark whiskey, not rum or brandy.
kenne
Red Sunset Behind The Tucson Mountains — Image by kenne
–kenne
Last evening we had four couples over for dinner. As our guests arrived, we were witness to a beautiful fall sunset over the Tucson Mountains, with cirrus clouds dancing in the calm sea of the sky.
Wispy Cirrus Clouds in an October Sunset — Images by kenne
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View Toward The Tucson Mountains.
View Toward the Santa Catalina Mountains.
View North In Tanuri Ridge.
kenne
Sunset showing the smokey conditions over Tucson from the Gila wildfire in New Mexico. — Image by kenne
A record-setting New Mexico wildfire is spreading in all directions. A massive, erratic Gila National Forest blaze grew overnight to more than 190,000 acres, or nearly 300 square miles, as it raced across the area’s steep, ponderosa pine-covered hills and through its rugged canyons. The wildfire in the New Mexico wilderness that already is the largest in state history spread in all directions Thursday, and experts say it’s likely a preview of things to come as states across the West contend with a dangerous recipe of wind, low humidity and tinder-dry fuels. The conditions that help fuel the wildfire worry all residents of the southwest since we are all experiencing very dry, low humidity, perfect for wildfires throughout New Mexico and Arizona.
Here in Tucson, wer are currently experiencing only smoke from the Gila wildfire, as can be seen from this evening sunset over the Tucson Mountains. Let’s hope that’s all we will be dealing with.
kenne
Today we were hiking in the Brown Mountain area of the Tucson Mountains. This is the first rattlesnake I’ve seen in almost two years of hiking in the Sonoran Desert. Relatively speaking, this western rattlesnake is a little guy. As you can see, he blinds in nicely to the environment, which might explain why he was almost stepped on by some fellow hikers before creating a lot of commotion. By the time I got closer for these photos, he was coiled and making a lot of noise — the loudest I’ve ever heard from a rattlesnake. He was not happy with our being in his territory. I’m more familiar with darker rattlers in the southeastern U.S.
kenne
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake — Images by kenne
Yetman Trail is located in the Tucson Mountains Park west of Tucson
Images by kenne (Click here to see more photos.)
Old Stone House off Yetman Trail
Sherry Bowen, a typesetter and later city editor for the Arizona Daily Star, had lived in Rockford, Illinois, but moved to Tucson in the late twenties with the hope that the change in climate would help Ruby Bowen’s serious heart serious heart condition. They lived in town for a few years, before homesteading on 2,000 acres in the Tucson Mountains and started building the stone house in 1931. It took one year to build the house, during which time the Bowen’s lived in a cabin nearby.
At that time, Tucson was still a small town. The Tucson Mountains terrain was a wilderness frequented by mountain lions and bighorn sheep. Ruby kept a diary while they were building the house. In the diary, she wrote about seeing mountain lions and bighorn sheep in the hills above the house. In one entry, she wrote of an incident where a mountain lion tried to climb through the window of her cabin while she was cooking some meat!
Ruby’s heart condition did improve, and the Bowen’s had a child in 1943. In 1944 they moved to New York, where Sherry worked for the AP. The land around their house was incorporated into the Tucson Mountain Park in 1983.
kenne
(Copy for this entry was prepared from the Tucson Hiking Guide written by Betty Leavengood. Additional Material: GVHC Library File 73)
Images by kenne
View South From Atop Wasson Peak in Saguaro National Park – West, January 30, 2012 — Image by kenne
Tucson Mountains — Image by kenne
Be all but gone the tumbleweed
With breaths of desert winds
A stillness
Then labored sigh
The land receives its winter rain
Dry river beds spew the overflow
When clouds calm, and day appears
Suspended in dusk
Breath is caught in hues of haze
Snow falls,
Yet melts on earth so parched
Frost bends the Palm
Again the sun will kiss
The misty morn’
Fractured fields of dust and dearth
Slumber
Beneath blankets stiff with ice
Winter’s breath on desert lands
— Debby Alten
Paul and Jim On The Cam-Boa Trail Headed Toward Panther Peak — Image by kenne
We left the Cam-Boh Picnic Area , located off Picture Rocks Road, on the Cam-Boa trail at the western edge of the Tucson Mountain District of the Saguaro National Park – West. Part of this trail in the Panther Peak Wash, however we cut across the wash headed toward the draw or gully between Panther Peak and Sombrero Peak to the east. This time of year the floor of the desert is showing a lot of green from the early growth of desert wild-flowers.
My hiking partners, Jim and Paul, shared time leading as we tried to pick the best route up through the draw, trying to spot an occasional cairn. Stopping along the way, I took several photos, some meant to form panorama images of the surrounding mountains.
Precarious Boulder — Image by kenne
It is not as unusual as it may seen to see a large boulder resting on another large boulder, they are naturally occurring geological formations. However, when your trail leads right next to one like in the above photo, you step carefully — even more so when a closer inspection shows a crack at the point of balance. I have always been told not to be concerned since they only seem to be balancing, but are in fact firmly connected to a base boulder by a pedestal or stem. That’s by story and I’m sticking to it, not withstanding thoughts of “127 Hours” flashing through my head!
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A beautiful morning for an easy hiking trail at the end of 36th Street leading into the Tucson Mountains Park.
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Paul, Ed and Jim
Cat Mountain
Trail Leading Into The Tucson Mountain Park
View Toward the Catalina and Rincon Mountains
A Lot Of Small Saguaro Cactus In The Tucson Mountains (Foreground)
View Of Catalina And Rincon Mountains From The Tucson Mountains
More Young (20-40 Years) In The Tucson Mountains
