Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A trip to Eastern Arizona / 500th post!

we had such a great trip - i really needed a recharge.

An Orchid - C. Maculata? seems more yellow & with a wider lip?

We had to get out of the dusty, dry, smokey place that Flagstaff is at the end of just about every June. Off to Eastern AZ we went - it was sweeeeet.

our friends Sam & Christie went with us - thanks for the good times!

I don't know what these are, but they are awesome. I wish i got to see one bloom. Planteo? any clue?

Denise was rockin' the trout fishing. I caught more, but she consistently got some fat little football fish, and the biggest ones.

a bow width one from Moi. Nice cooking size. unfortunately for them, they are delicious.........

Damn beautiful forest out there. camp was at 9,000ft.

A fat pondorosa Pine in camp.

My 1st Apache Trout!!!!! - A species native to only the clear streams of E-AZ. golden-bronze with tiny spots & orange fins. our state fish, and a beautiful one at that.

In the middle of this field of wild Iris we spotted this grove of albino ones. Sublime.

A standard purple one........

And an albino. stunning.

High, Lonesome range. I love Alpine meadows. it rained every afternoon but one. *perfect.*

tons of elk & deer.

Mt. Baldy, AZ's 2nd highest peak.

They have rivers!!!!! Lots of them!

Wolves. too.

Sally pointing out some Penstemmon Barbatus ready to pop. "scarlet buglers"


Lush! Deer's ears & Bracken.

A beautiful detail pic of one of the thousands of flowers.

remember what a moist trail looks like?

Orange Sneezeweed.

THe clouds were rockin'. I kept waiting for this storm to start swirling.

Denise continues her hot streak. nice one!

and another.........

check out this multi-miles high Anvil Cloud. Impressive.

I did a really, really hard trail to one of the wild rivers. six miles of bliss/suffering/rippin'.

getting sneaky on another river.

Our little crew minus Sally sleeping.

down, down, down to the Rio.

It looks kinda sketchy over that way....

Apache trout & wild Browns - oh yeah.

it's very, very steep from that trail sign down there.

Rockin'.

Sendero muy Sabroso.

Daisy....

going deep - nice one!
- Back to work - taylor's bike is outta here, pics later, Marzoff's on the table - Garro.

8 comments:

Mimbres Man said...

Nice Steve! Sorry we didn't cross paths. My brother-in-law and I stayed at Diamond Rock C.G. (site 11) for two nights. We fished Big Lake with moderate success (not like you pros). I caught two decent sized trout, a cutthroat and a rainbow (I think). My brother-in-law caught a nice sized brook (I think). I had a lot of hits on day two but none on the hook. We were using worms.
Ate elk burgers at the Bush Valley Cafe in Alpine and spotted a Mexican gray wolf near Toboggan hill! Very cool!
I'll head to Flagstaff after the 4th. Looking forward to it.

Sam and Christie said...

Thanks for a great weekend!! We had so much fun. Nice pictures.

Sam and Christie said...

Thanks for an awesome weekend! Nice pictures. Can't wait to go back.

Anonymous said...

Awesome. Seriously awesome.

Anonymous said...

Nice Steve - just like you said! Can't wait to go there and enjoy the beautiful scenery with you guys. Joe (bro)

Japhy rider said...

it's a "corn lily." small flowers on a stalk. apparently it's gnar... teratogen etc. i've alway's considered it nature's mountain $$$! watch out, W.S. Burrough's "Spare Ass Annie" comes to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veratrum_californicum

pretty common in meadows of the Sierra NV. awesome to see them in SE AZ! don't eat em.

u2metoo said...

nice post, steve.

Faux Martha said...

Your pictures are fantastic...missin AZ.