Waddell, Arizona

Just north of our home here in Buckeye, Arizona, lay the White Tank Mountains. In 1961, the White Tank Mountain Regional Park, almost 30,000 acres in the heart of the range became Maricopa County’s largest park. Open year round with only five paid staff and a host of unpaid volunteers, the miles of hiking trails, picnic ramadas and other park facilities invite guests from all over the world.

In the spring, especially when rains have been plentiful, as was the case this year, wildflowers cover the desert landscape. On Wednesdays in the months of February and March, 2015, a volunteer leads a hike on the most promising trails providing information on plants with a focus on available wild flowers.

The first week of the hike didn’t provide many flowers for us to view, but we learned a lot about many of the plants found in the park, and over the next few weeks we will be able to spot and identify plants as they start to bloom during the short spring wildflower season. This week, Lynn and I are traveling, gathering more images to share. In the meantime, I submit for your approval, a gallery of images taken on our first wildflower hike in 2015. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

The White Tank Regional Park has a busy schedule of events open to the general public. You can check the current schedule at the park’s web page here. If you get the chance, one of the most interesting and enjoyable hikes is the night moonlight hike typically held twice a month on full moon nights. One hike is for families, including the family dog; the other hike is open to adults only.

John Steiner

Phoenix, Arizona

This week’s photo challenge puts us off the traditional reds, greens, blues and silvers of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. We are asked to feature images that focus on the color yellow. From the challenge post, “While we love bananas, lemons, and peppers (and you’re more than welcome to show us your yummy, fresh produce), challenge yourself to think beyond fruits and veggies.” You can view the entire challenge post here.

This was an easy challenge when it came to searching my gallery of images. I use Adobe Lightroom as my “go to” editing tool, so it was a simple matter of scrolling through the Lightroom catalog and creating a quick selection of images that were predominately yellow, or featured yellow subjects. Though my gallery includes a large number of yellow vehicle images, and even a couple of yellow submarines, for this challenge gallery, I decided to focus on living things. The opening image is an albino python that lives at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, Arizona. This image and more from the zoo are featured in an earlier post here.

In the spring, the desert is resplendent with color, especially after an abnormally wet winter season. One of the most prominent colors in the desert spring is yellow. I submit for your approval a gallery of images featuring desert plants displaying their yellow finery. Click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

Looking through my image library, I discovered some landscapes that contain different shades of yellow. Those images may just be a feature of a second entry in this week’s challenge, sometime during the next few days.

You can view more images of springtime flora at the Phoenix Botanical Garden here.

More images of springtime in the Sonoran Desert around Phoenix can be found here.

Even though this post avoids featuring holiday colors, I will take a moment to wish all my followers a happy holiday season.

John Steiner

Phoenix, AZ

The winter and spring of 2012 provided plenty of precipitation in the Phoenix area. On February 6, my wife, Lynn, and I visited the Sonoran Preserve Park in north Phoenix. The new park has many miles of newly developed trails that are nicely GPS-mapped. That day we hiked two trails, Hawk’s Nest and Dixie Mountain Loop. As we rounded the west side of the Dixie Mountain Trail, turning southerly, we walked through the meadow above. The meadow grass was spectacularly green. When I saw the new growth, I knew we would have a great wildflower season in a couple of months. By the way, don’t confuse this park with the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, they are two separate parks several miles apart.

A note on the photo above… I did not retouch this photo for saturation. In Lightroom, I cropped slightly for composition, bumped up the brightness and contrast just a touch. That is all I did. I didn’t even hit the “auto” button, my usual first step.

Given the challenge, though, I had to take another shot from the same photo series, clicked the “auto” button and then from there, tweaked up the saturation. The photo below is just for fun.

One more note, I just upgraded my computer to Windows 8 and am moving my data and software to the new computer. I am also learning the tricks of Windows 8. As a result, I am behind on my regular blog posts. I couldn’t resist entering the photo challenge, though, now that I have my photos and Lightroom moved to the new box.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/photo-challenge-saturated/

John Steiner

Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ

As I write on this Easter Sunday, I can think of no more fitting place to visit than a garden. It heralds the coming of Spring, of new life, of resurrection from the desolation of winter. Last year and this, my wife, Lynn, and I visited the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

Since 1939, the garden has been delighting visitors of all ages. Their vision statement, which states in part, “The Garden’s vision is to be the premier center in the world for the display, study and understanding of desert plants and their environments,” continues to be fulfilled.

My favorite trail within the garden in the spring is the Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Loop Trail. Blossoms abound, and the desert environment, normally imagined as arid, desolate and void of life, has been transformed into verdant displays of multicolored flowers. The displays are carefully attended by employees and a large volunteer corps that maintains the grounds.

Last year, we arrived late in the day, and we missed the butterfly exhibit. It closes earlier than the park, and by the time we got to the exhibit, it had just closed. We decided not to make that mistake again. With Lynn and me on our visit this year, my sister and a friend were along. We didn’t have the entire day, as a trip to the airport to pick up my niece was also on the agenda. We satisfied ourselves this trip with a visit to the wildflower trail, and our long-awaited walk through the butterfly exhibit. The many other trails in the garden would have to wait for another time.

Walk through the garden with us, and we will share with you some of the beauty you will find there.

Along the Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Loop Trail:

The Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden is a great place to visit any time of year, but it is especially beautiful in the spring. If you are in the area, put it on your list of places to visit in Phoenix.

John Steiner