Orion's Photos: places - Arizona - 2004 - south_mountain_park

Download these pictures

This is the South Mountain Park, just south of Phoenix, New Mexico. We got there by taking I-10 south from downtown, east on Baseline, south on 48th Avenue, and east again on Pima Canyon Road. There's a small parking lot at the end of Pima Canyon Road, with a large gated gravel road cut into the solid rock, heading east up the mountain valley (0015), with immense numbers of trails heading off in every direction.

0000-0042 are from Sunday afternoon, November 16, 2003. Chee Wai Lee and I abandoned Gengbin Zheng (0007) and Chao Huang (0009) on top of the first mountaintop (0016), and continued up the ridge. We passed several amazing structures, including a natural arch (0032-0033), until sunset, when we circled back down a valley.

0044-?? are from Monday, November 17, 2003. The other guys had tutorials, so I went alone, passing what looks like a sweat lodge (0046-0051) at the end of the gravel road, then coming up the valley (0052-0096) just south of the national trail. I came up to the national trail at a prominent outcropping (0091). At the top of the national trail, I took a panorama of Phoenix, starting from viewing north (0103-0115). I climbed back through the Hidden Valley tunnel (0116, 0144-0149), then worked my way up the Hidden Valley to an interesting peak. I ate my lunch and read the free hotel paper on a huge, flat slab (0127), then worked my way back down.

The mountains themselves are weathered metamorphic rock---mostly granite. The rock is fractured along several axes (0001-0006, 0027), sometimes in faults running at least dozens of meters long (0124) and seems to break down quickly to a gravel/sand mix. The rock is a grey granite where initially fractured or weathered (0084).

I was amazed by the variety of plants, animals, and insects. There were slow, purposeful black 2cm beetles (0017). Furtive 5cm lizards skittered in the shadows (0135-0136). An energetic black, white, and grey bird (0062), possibly a shrike, bathed in a rock cleft. I didn't manage a picture of an unidentified 4cm flying insect, black with red wings and a stinger (near 0091); and I think I saw a large brown coyote (near 0141). Deadly-looking desert thorns (0142) were fairly common.

The most obvious plant is of course the saguaro cactus, which reached easily 8m tall (0020). Cactus were present in all stages of development, including this healty adult (0098-0102), and decomposing adult (0131-134). There were also other varieties of cactus, such as this young (0005) and decomposing (0067-0071) barrel cactus; as well as huge quantities of cholla (0011).

Preview Image Map 0
dscf0001.jpg dscf0002.jpg dscf0004.jpg dscf0005.jpg dscf0006.jpg

Preview Image Map 1
dscf0007.jpg dscf0009.jpg dscf0010.jpg dscf0011.jpg dscf0012.jpg

Preview Image Map 2
dscf0013.jpg dscf0014.jpg dscf0015.jpg dscf0016.jpg dscf0017.jpg

Preview Image Map 3
dscf0019.jpg dscf0020.jpg dscf0021.jpg dscf0022.jpg dscf0023.jpg

Preview Image Map 4
dscf0024.jpg dscf0025.jpg dscf0027.jpg dscf0028.jpg dscf0029.jpg

Preview Image Map 5
dscf0030.jpg dscf0032.jpg dscf0033.jpg dscf0038.jpg dscf0039.jpg

Preview Image Map 6
dscf0040.jpg dscf0042.jpg dscf0046.jpg dscf0048.jpg dscf0049.jpg

Preview Image Map 7
dscf0051.jpg dscf0052.jpg dscf0053.jpg dscf0054.jpg dscf0055.jpg

Preview Image Map 8
dscf0056.jpg dscf0057.jpg dscf0058.jpg dscf0059.jpg dscf0060.jpg

Preview Image Map 9
dscf0062.jpg dscf0067.jpg dscf0068.jpg dscf0069.jpg dscf0070.jpg

Preview Image Map 10
dscf0071.jpg dscf0074.jpg dscf0075.jpg dscf0076.jpg dscf0077.jpg

Preview Image Map 11
dscf0078.jpg dscf0079.jpg dscf0080.jpg dscf0081.jpg dscf0082.jpg

Preview Image Map 12
dscf0084.jpg dscf0087.jpg dscf0088.jpg dscf0089.jpg dscf0091.jpg

Preview Image Map 13
dscf0093.jpg dscf0094.jpg dscf0095.jpg dscf0096.jpg dscf0097.jpg

Preview Image Map 14
dscf0098.jpg dscf0099.jpg dscf0100.jpg dscf0101.jpg dscf0102.jpg

Preview Image Map 15
dscf0103.jpg dscf0104.jpg dscf0105.jpg dscf0106.jpg dscf0107.jpg

Preview Image Map 16
dscf0108.jpg dscf0109.jpg dscf0110.jpg dscf0111.jpg dscf0112.jpg

Preview Image Map 17
dscf0113.jpg dscf0115.jpg dscf0116.jpg dscf0117.jpg dscf0118.jpg

Preview Image Map 18
dscf0120.jpg dscf0121.jpg dscf0122.jpg dscf0123.jpg dscf0124.jpg

Preview Image Map 19
dscf0125.jpg dscf0126.jpg dscf0127.jpg dscf0128.jpg dscf0129.jpg

Preview Image Map 20
dscf0130.jpg dscf0131.jpg dscf0132.jpg dscf0133.jpg dscf0134.jpg

Preview Image Map 21
dscf0135.jpg dscf0136.jpg dscf0137.jpg dscf0138.jpg dscf0139.jpg

Preview Image Map 22
dscf0140.jpg dscf0141.jpg dscf0142.jpg dscf0143.jpg dscf0144.jpg

Preview Image Map 23
dscf0145.jpg dscf0146.jpg dscf0147.jpg dscf0148.jpg dscf0149.jpg

Preview Image Map 24
dscf0150.jpg dscf0151.jpg dscf0152.jpg dscf0153.jpg


All images taken by Orion Lawlor and placed completely in the public domain.
Converted to HTML on Wed Aug 31 21:12:08 AKDT 2011.
Back up to Photo Archive
Back up to Orion's Homepage