2017 Desert departure

The last few days of my visit to the great Southwest were spent at Gilbert Ray cg in Tucson Mountain County Park. That is just down the road from the Saguaro NP

Saguaro NP

and AZ Sonoran Desert Museum. I did a couple of the drives in Saguaro NP and visited the ASDM with a friend another day. Must say that Museum is so much more than the typical “museum” it is really made up of several areas featuring desert plants, a couple of aviaries and several settings in which native wildlife live. The Otter, Cougar and Bobcat were visible, some of

Bobcat in the shade

the other critters were not but I’d say all the abodes were about as nice as any I’ve seen in any zoo or wildlife place. One of the highlights of the museum is the raptor shows they do twice daily. While we were there they flew 4 Harris Hawks, the only raptors know to work as a “pack”. Getting good photos was hard because I was facing into the sun.

One evening after a day of intermittent rain there was a glorious sunset. I’d found a place earlier in the day that I thought would provide a good foreground and it did. As the sun was setting it

AZ sunset with rain pouring down west of where I was

was lighting up yet more rain headed towards the campground, so it added something unique to the images. The next morning I got up early with hopes of capturing a good sunrise but the high mountain to the east and lack of clouds made that a non issue. As I stood there in the desert with my camera settings for the sunrise I spotted a coyote trotting by. Naturally I swung the camera to follow it, all the time thinking do I dare try to change the settings? Will it keep moving or stop?  It stopped and I did get a photo ( but I didn’t realize it until later in the day).

Coyote in early morning light

Not the best ever but certainly the best/only one I can claim of a coyote at sunrise.

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2017 Arabian Horse Show

The weekend with friends in Buckeye included going to the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show both Friday morning then again Saturday evening for some of the Championship classes. This is the largest such show in the country, filling 10 days with nonstop activity in several arenas at the same time. The vendors sell an amazing array of things from tack to clothing for every type of riding, along with so many other items.

Friday morning we watched a bit of one of the reining classes then moved over to see some of the herd work. The herd work involved selecting a cow from the herd and holding it away from the herd. There was a time limit and it seemed like the more cows one could
remove from the herd for even just a few minutes the better the score was. This is not to be  confused with the cutting horse class, which we did not see. I think that is a lot more fast paced and harder action.  We wandered around catching little bits of action in the various rings and taking in the amazing set ups that many of the professional trainers had. No just ordinary stables for them but first class places with life size photos of horses, displays of their many ribbons, etc. I heard the figure $1700/ month for training tossed out and it seems presenting a first class image is all part of making a good impression.

Saturday evening there were championship classes in several divisions. My friend Veronica kindly found a box seat for me to I could be close to ringside. I know that helped me get some super images. Many thanks! First of all we watched a jumping competition that I believe was Amateur to Ride. A 10 year old girl from Idaho got 3rd place.  This was not a championship class.

 

Next up was the finals driving class  then came the Western Pleasure Horse finals. It was interesting to see but I must admit I don’t think I’d find that class a pleasure. Everything was so exaggerated, from the extremely slow paces (nearly loping in place) to the way the horses all had their heads tucked way in, nose was well behind the vertical. Just didn’t seem fun, relaxing or a pleasure. It was a great show of things carried to the extreme for the show ring. There were a couple of English riding classes, too. At least in those the horses heads had more normal positions.

Then came the Liberty Championship class. I’d never see anything like it and will remember it for a long time. Each horse is brought in alone, with just a halter on. The halter is removed and the time (and music) starts. The horse is given 2 minutes to show off, when time is called the handler has 2 minutes to capture the horse. There is usually someone with the handler, the only props they have are little whips with feathers (or something at the end) that they will flick around to get the horse to react, change direction, etc. Some horses spend the whole 2 minutes literally running around, that isn’t as impressive for the judges as the ones who varied their gaits, showed off their stuff a bit more.

Final class was the native costume class and what a class it was! Color, flash, elaborate costumes, handsome horses. I doubt the Arabians in the early days had the means let alone the material to dress in such fashion but it was fun to see what people’s imaginations can come up with. The winner rode a black horse and her whole costume and the tack was all black. Very simple and elegant.

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2017 Winter Range

I’ve been visiting a good friend who moved to AZ. Her husband used to be active in Cowboy Action Shooting in NJ. Needless to say AZ sees its share of that. Turns out the national competition is held just north of Phoenix and takes about 10 days do go through all the events. None of us had seen any mounted shooting (except of course in westerns in the movies or on TV) so Saturday morning we headed out to see what we could see. We all shoot at least one type of firearm and none of us could imagine doing mounted shooting. We were well in the minority as far as our mode of dress went. Most everyone there was dressed in period outfits or early western garb.

The mounted shooting was fascinating. You have to admire riders who can  shoot 5 rounds from one pistol then change guns and shoot 5 more rounds all while following a prescribed pattern and being timed. Everyone used the same loads, which were good for about 15′ max. Fastest with a clean round won, penalties for missed balloons. Each rider was supposed to shoot out 10 balloons. The pedestals the balloons were on were a marvel themselves. When a balloon was shot it immediately filled another one with air, no one had to run around replacing balloons. The first pattern was pretty simple forward and back (2 times each direction) with 3 turns, the second pattern was different and followed more of a clover leaf pattern similar to one used in barrel racing. Both patterns required the riders to shoot some shots in each direction (left and right).

After watching the mounted shooting for a while we went over to “Suttlers Row” where there were vendors selling clothing, guns and gear apropos to the sport. There was also a showman demonstrating whips, knives, etc. It was a great way to spend the day and learn more about the many aspects of Cowboy Action shooting.

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2017, Desert Botanical Garden

Located near Phoenix is the Desert Botanical Garden. The friends I was visiting last week have annual passes so we went one day. A one day visit means you are covering a lot of ground at a good clip!  The places is vast with various walks through different areas, displaying many varieties of desert plants including cactus, aloe and agave. Aloe 500 is a genus containing over 500 species of flowering succulent plants. Not sure

Another Agave, this one is over 2′ across

about the number of Agave species but I have a really good, prolific one in my front yard so I was attracted to those. Would love to find a couple of the ones I saw at the botanical garden to have at home.

We spent the day, which included a nice sandwich at the cafe on site then headed back to Buckeye.

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Never expected to still be camping in CA but here I am. When I left Death Valley I was hoping to get into Joshua Tree NP for a few days. Hah! I didn’t have reservations and the holiday weekend brought out hoards of people. No site for me. Since the weather prediction for the weekend was strong winds and heavy rain I decided to head to the Salton Sea SRA where I was due to meet friends on Sunday. Full hookups, a real splurge for me and good friends to share the time with. The Salton Sea is the largest inland body of water in CA and has a higher salt content than the Pacific. Several kinds of shore birds, along with both brown and white pelicans are here. Not a lot different than at home in FL, really. I did find some Burrowing Owls though and it was fun to watch them for a while, but there wasn’t a lot of action. It was them watching me watch them, really.

I’ve heard about the amazing metal sculptures in the desert around Borrego Springs from a few Casita friends and thought it would be fun to see them, but also thought the chances of me being in the area were nil. Not so! Turns out Borrego Springs is about 90 minutes from here so my dear friend (and former Casita owner) Cindi and I headed over there today. What fun we had locating the sculptures.

From the Chamber of Commerce booklet ” The gifts of visionary town benefactor Dennis Avery and the craft of sculptor Ricardo Breceda, the sculptures began arriving in April 2008, taking up residence on Avery’s private parcel of land known as Galleta Meadows Estate and easily visible from Borrego Springs Road, north and south.”  There are well worn dirt roads weaving to and around the sculptures on the various parcels of land. Some of the critters are prehistoric, some more recognizable, some straight out of fantasy. The “Serpent” has 3 sections on one side of the road and the tail sections are on the other. It reminds me of ancient maps that depicted the earth as flat and the unknown was described as  “There be dragons” with a drawing much like the serpent.

The sculptures in some cases are larger than life (scorpion and grasshopper for example) and in others I suspect very close to life size. The action captured by the sculptor is amazing. We found ourselves with more questions than answers on the way home. In some cases I guess he could base the piece on life experience or a photo (like the mare with foal) in others it looks like he must have done some research (saber tooth tiger) and in others it seems like his imagination took over. Each piece is a fine piece of art and shows marvelous skill. The number of pieces was surprising. For example there wasn’t just one prehistoric critter, or one example of a specific species. In some cases there was an adult and smaller ones.

We explored the parcels on the south side of town, had a fantastic lunch then went to the northern parcels to view the rest of the sculptures. I haven’t shown all of them here. It was a great day and a fine finish to a relaxing weekend with friends.

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2017 Death Valley

View of Death Vally floor from along Badwater Drive

At Quartzite some friends mentioned they were headed to Death Valley next…..hmmm, never been there so I decided to go, too. I got a site at a rather barren campground, really  a gravel lot with space numbers, but the cost is low. There is a decent breeze that makes up for the lack of shade, too. The valley floor is close to 200′ below seal level. I can’t imagine the hard life the miners and others had here when they came.

I had no idea what to expect and it has been interesting exploring a bit. It is surrounded by mountains, with a long drive slowly descending to the valley floor. So far I haven’t seen much if any cactus of any sort. The hills are different from most I’ve see out west because they seem softer or more crumbly, affected more easily by any rains or winds that come. The colors range from yellow and gold to dark brown with a tint of green in a few places.

I’ve gotten out a couple of nights and took advantage of the interesting

Moonlight and stars at Zabriskie Point

foregrounds and moonlight, Very different from what I’ve seen before.

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2017 Quartzsite, AZ

Different hours of the day (or night) at Quartzite give you very different views. Sunset is peaceful, colorful or bland depending on the clouds.

A very early morning (0545) can provide an opportunity to see the Milky Way.

 

A bit later when the sun rises the colors can be spectacular, changing constantly.

 

 

 

Late afternoon lights up the stately Saguaro cactus and highlights the bright green of the Ocotillos.

 

The last image is of a small percent of the RVs that come to Quartzite to spend the winter on the BLM land. It’s inexpensive and you get to pick your location, close to others, sort of close but not too, or way out in the desert.