Buckeye, Arizona.

This week found us on our first Arizona hike of our 2016-2017 visit. Our local hiking club meets on Thursdays to enjoy the desert views in western Phoenix metro and around the area. Skyline Park opened last year with a small collection of newly groomed trails. Over the summer, several new trails were added. One such trail is Granite Falls, a short 1.7 mile sojourn through the valley next to the most prominent peak in the park. Of course, you can’t get there from the parking lot, so the route included some distance on the Turnbuckle Trail resulting in a total hiking distance of 3.6 miles. Altitude changes are gentle along the entire route, and the trail is correctly labeled as “easy.” It was truly a walk in the park.

If you click on the image, it will enlarge. Look carefully at the nearest horizon line and you will see part of the city of Buckeye. In the winters, we live only about 3 miles from the park in one of the nearby residential areas.

About the photo: This photo was captured on a Samsung Galaxy S7 cellphone. Because I included an obscured sun, the exposure was quick at 1/12544 sec.; f/1.7; ISO-50. Due to the short exposure, the foreground on the original image was quite dark. I edited the image on an iPad to bring out the foreground details. In the process, I darkened the clouds a bit to emphasize the sunlight shining through. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple, the image must be captured and edited on mobile devices.