riding off into the saguaro forest

9/3/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona

Speaking of horses, I saw a really great horse movie last week that is currently playing at The Loft Cinema in Tucson: Wild Horse, Wild Ride.  [It ends Thursday, Sept 20th, so if you want to see it in Tucson you better rush... worth it.]

This movie follows several trainer/horse pairs as they participate in the Wild Horse Makeover competition.  It starts with them getting assigned a wild mustang and follows them as they work with the horse over 100 days, taking the wild horses from being very wary/terrified of humans to being rideable and even doing tricks.

Its very interesting to watch the different human/horse interactions as they get used to each other.  Lots of great characters in this movie.  If you have any interest in human - animal interactions, horse or otherwise, I'd really recommend this movie.  It features trainers/riders from several areas of the U.S. including several from Arizona.

Here's the trailer:  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYr0YozIcoQ )

yellow, bees, and a bug

9/1/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona

Happenings on top of a barrel cactus on a saturday morning...

 

[Links: for anyone interested in more pics of the Labor Day runners in Saguaro National Park, I've uploaded 155 of my pictures to flickr (slideshow option on upper right of screen once there).]

scat little butterfly, scat

9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona

Prickly Pear Cactus fruit

9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East, Tucson, Arizona

[Links related to my post yesterday covering the Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run:  Diane of Desert Colors posted some great pictures of the start and she also provided a link to an outstanding short YouTube video made by her son that shows the beginning of the race -- the portion of the video showing the initial flow of runners down the steep hills at the start is not to be missed!]

Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run 2012

I got up very early this morning to hike across part of Saguaro National Park before sunrise.  

I had a particular place that I wanted to be to try my hand at taking runner pictures for the 2012 Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run.   The 8 mile paved loop road starts and ends at one location only, there would be 100's of people at the start/finish line, and the race starts at sunrise.  Hence the couple of mile trek across the desert listening to curved bill thrashers singing to the moon while I watched jack rabbits impersonate kangaroos in the dim morning light.

I took a different trail back to my car, this time in full sun.

So...   This was my first time taking pictures of runners in a timed event.   I tried out several things in my photo taking -- some worked out very well, others, not so much.  I learned a lot, which is one of the reasons I enjoy taking pictures at events.

I really enjoyed getting out early in the morning and putting in several miles of trail before and after the shoot.  My route was relatively flat, the loop that the runners took, not so much...  I used to bike that loop frequently and it certainly has some hills!

Congratulations to all my friends who ran it!

UPDATE -->  I've now uploaded 155 runner pictures of the 2012 Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run to Flickr where they can be viewed individually or as a slide show.

more arms four arms

9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East

I snapped a few pics during a quick hike in Saguaro National Park this morning which I'll post over the next few days or so.  

Here are four new arms starting to emerge on the east side of this saguaro.  I'm always amazed at how saguaro arms just seem to tear their way out of the main column.   Here are some of my past pictures of new saguaro arms emerging.  Looks painful.  Of course a saguaro would probably just say: "come on, you can take it, show a little spine will ya".

9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East

9/2/2012, Saguaro National Park East

A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park

I attended a very cool reading tonight at the University of Arizona Poetry Center where 16 writers read their poems about plants and animals of Saguaro National Park (all 80 pieces are in the online Spiral Orb issue 5: A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park -- see below).

To view these poems and writings, you need to visit the entry poem  which "composts a fragment from each the pieces in the Poetic inventory project into a new species of poem".  Each fragment in the entry poem is actually a link to the entire piece from which the fragment came.  A fun way to explore the poems and writings.

Here is the link to the entry poem to A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park  (remember to click around in it to find the source poems and writings and note that these poems may contain highlighted fragments in turn).

Here are a few I especially liked:

Sonoron Whiptail Lizard: Personal Ad by Valerina Quintana
Raven by Shawna Thompson
Mountain Lion by Ken Lamberton
Questions for a Saguaro by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Jumping Cholla by Logan Phillips

arms race revisited

Several people commented on my previous post showing a picture of a new saguaro arm emerging from inside the saguaro (rather than a bud type growth). While wandering the saguaro forest this morning I looked around at new arms to see if my previous picture was an anomaly or not. From what I could see, it does appear that the new arms break out from under the parent column's cover. I took a close look at the saguaro above which had several young arms of different ages... Interesting.

Still signs of breaking out from inside the column.

Side view showing the tear out which seems to disappear as the arm grows larger.

And here's the tip of the start of an arm, currently a little larger than a golf ball.

spine-chilling in Tucson

Tucson received a nice light snowfall this morning. I took an optional holiday from work -- drove out to Saguaro National Park at 7 am to wander around and take a few snaps. The picture above is looking North across Tucson at the Santa Catalina mountains, the top of which received a fresh 18 inches of snow. Where I'm standing received maybe an inch or so, melting pretty fast.

The saguaros were all wearing snow caps.

Looking toward the Rincon Mountains which border the east side of the Tucson valley.

I saw a solitary deer walking along the loop road. We made eye contact and were both momentarily relieved to see other warm prey in the area, given the number of mountain lion warning signs.

This sleeping ocotillo was still clutching its teddy-bear to stay warm...

The low elevation snow was melting pretty fast

Winter barrel cactus sprouts anyone? Perhaps on a salad?

on the trail with my eyes open

I took a break from hitting the books today and took a quick 6 mile hike through part of Saguaro National Park (SNP). SNP is about a 10 minute drive from my house. I was really happy that the Curved Billed Thrasher stayed put long enough for me to snap a picture.

Beautiful day out today -- its supposed to get windy tonight before our next storm hits. I took the Shantz Trail out past Pink Hill to Squeeze Corral Trail and back via the Cholla Trail. Quite a few people out on the trails today, including several on horseback.

Even in the dormant winter months, colors linger from summertime.

This is part of the internal framework of a dead prickly pear cactus pad.

A new arm starts to emerge out of the side of a saguaro

A really strange cactus in the foreground

This is what happens when you take phototropism too seriously...

Looking NW toward the Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson. This range peaks at 9157 feet, has a pine forest on top, and even a ski area. About an hour's drive from Tucson will put one on top.

Trail head sign warning of mountain lion sightings as well as reports of rabid bobcats and foxes. It seems like we've had a lot a rabid bobcats in particular in the last few years.

Ok, well time for dinner and then back to the books / career strategy.