wild flower – Page 13 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Named For A Horse

with Aylor’s Arch

August 20, 2022April 13, 2024 MichaelStephenWills

Dutchman Trail turns right up ahead to proceed between Palamino Mountain and Black Top Mesa, both shown in this photograph. The ridge of the mountain reminds some of a horse and there is an arch, Aylor Arch, on the southern side: here was approach the north side. Aylor is the family name of gold prospectors who set up camp on that south side close to where we will spend the night below Weavers Needle.

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View of Palamino Mountain and Black Top Mesa from Dutchman’s trail.

Black Top Mesa is named for a layer of black basalt. Look closely to see the crags on the mesa (the flat-topped mountain) are black. Gold prospectors who combed Black Top Mesa over the years found not one speck of gold.

References:

Explore Aylor’s Arch

Looming

a deadly quest

August 14, 2022August 21, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

O’Grady Canyon widens at the meeting with Little Boulder Canyon.

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Prickly Pear cactus is in foreground. In season these produce magnificent flowers, see below.

Prickly Pear flowers at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson, Arizona

East by Southeast a low ridge forms the west side of the canyons above which Weaver’s Needle looms. “Weavers Needle has played a significant role in the stories of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. The Needle’s shadow reportedly indicates the location of a rich vein of gold, and many treasure hunters have searched for it. The hunt for gold around Weavers Needle has been pursued by hundreds (possibly thousands) of people. Weavers Needle has a large split in the side that makes it look like it has two tops, not one. This can only be viewed from the side.” — wikipedia

To the far left is Palamino Mountain.

Reference: wikipedia “Weavers Needle”

On The Dutchman Trail

to Parker Pass

August 7, 2022August 21, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

Our expedition party on Dutchman Trail. Ahead is Parker Pass. Look carefully to pick out two horsemen and three horses packing equipment and supplies. They travelled much faster than my 3 – 4 miles per hour on foot.

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Ahead is Parker Pass, the opening between the two hills in the middle distance. Weaver’s Needle, 3.7 miles distant, at left above the Parker Pass ridge. You can still see my party, ahead. I “zoomed” in for a better view of the party, rapidly pulling ahead and out of sight.

As I top a rise my party is out of sight, more of Weaver’s Needle is visible on the right. The trail falls here before rising again to achieve Parker Pass. Distances on the Lost Dutchman trail are difficult to estimate, visible objectives are much farther then they appear. Constant sun, clear air, difficult terrain conspires against the unprepared leading many into overextending their luck. As a case in point, 37 minutes transpired between the second and third photographs.

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Headed Out

The Beginning

August 6, 2022August 21, 2022 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Dutchman’s trail, starting from First Water Trailhead, meanders through Sonoran Desert hills and washes, gradually climbing about 400 feet before descending into Boulder canyon.

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We were a party of three with five horses: two mounts and three pack. I was on foot, unencumbered by the usual backpack loaded with 80+ pounds of equipment and supplies for an extended wilderness expedition. I used the opportunity to wear a Sony F828 camera, used for the handheld photographs of this series.

The following photograph is our expedition party on First Water Trail. That is Parker Pass, the opening between the two hills in the middle distance. Look carefully to pick out two horsemen and three horses packing equipment and supplied. They travelled much faster than my 3 – 4 miles per hour on foot.

Foregrounds are the “jumping” Cholla, cactus with sharp spines that seem to reach out and grab the unwary. During out trek from Apache Junction to First Water trail head we negotiated forests of this nasty plants.

Click me for another Superstition Wilderness Episode

Desert Chicory

Macro work on Peter’s Trail

August 1, 2022July 24, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

This is a type of daisy, formal name Rafinesquia neomexicana. This season, March 2008, it grew throughout the wilderness. You might know it as Plumeseed or New Mexico Plumeseed.

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A Brief Happy Movie on the Solstice

a gorge walk

June 21, 2022June 10, 2022 MichaelStephenWills20 Comments

Walking around Taughannock Falls New York State Park on the solstice of 2019 starting from the Black Diamond trail head on Jackson Road, down the South Rim trail, up the North Rim Trail. We had a great deal of rain this week and the water filled the falls the full channel width.

The header photograph is a waterfall of Fillmore Glen, also in the Finger Lakes.

For a full screen view, click on the UTube icon, lower right of the video panel. The resolution is not very good so I also posted the source videos.

The movie is from the following videos and photos from my IPhone. The quality is better than the compilation video. I uploaded the following videos directly to WordPress. I was not able to get the “full view” icon to work on my browser. Enjoy

View of the upper gorge, above the falls, from the South Rim

View into the gorge from the South Rim

Distant view of Taughannock Falls from the South Rim

Click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

The stairs up to the North Rim of the gorge

View of the forest of the North Rim

A turkey vulture soars by towards the end of the following.

View of gorge from the North Rim

Taughannock Falls and “Ant People” from the overlook

Taughannock Falls from the North Rim

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Roadside Shrine and Island Landscape, Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland

Island Shrine

part of the Irish landscape

June 20, 2022June 20, 2022 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

A roadside shrine on Cottage Road, Inishmore. The faith brought by the saints has deep roots here.

A large crucifix set with wet stone walls with cut flowers. The walls are the native limestone.

It is a spring (early June) afternoon and there are fern and wildflowers. The white flowers are Greater Burnet saxifrage (Scientific Name: Pimpinella major).

Click Me for Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands

The existing dry stone wall was interrupted by the shrine. In the distance are dry stone walls around fields, a stone shed, feeding horses and the sea, being Galway Bay, storm clouds with distant rain.

Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland.

Click me for the first post of this series, “Horse Trap on Inishmore.”

References: search google “Wet Stone”

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

The Waterlily Genus Nymphaea

Congrats to all fathers and grandfathers, Happy Fathers Day

June 19, 2022June 12, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

The McKee informative placard divides the Genus Nymphaea into “Hardy” and “Tropical” waterlilies. “Hardy” being plants native to temperate climates, such as New York State. I do not have photos of these from McKee. Nor are there examples of Lotus.

**The idiosyncratic categories of McKee Gardens**

What I have is an abundance of the “tropical” varieties.

“The family Nymphaeaceae, of which the genus Nymphaea is a part, is thought to be the most basic of all the Angiosperms. A minute flower of the Nymphaea type was found in early Cretaceous deposits in Portugal, dating early waterlilies to at least 115-125 million years ago.“

*Bright sunlight washed out the flower, not so for the reflected image*

Here is a brightly colored “tropical” flower well above the water surface on an erect stem emerging from the water.

“Angiosperm,” the word referring to all flowering plants, is composed to two greek words angio-. meaning enclosed, and -sperm, meaning seed. “DNA studies indicate the Nymphaeaceae separated from the rest of the angiosperm family tree…..before the separation of the monocots and dicots.” – see reference.

Click me for wonderful sculpture at McKee Gardens

Reference: The Botanical Garden, Volume II, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, pp 382-383

Cliff Edge II

Flowers on the edge

June 13, 2022June 1, 2022 MichaelStephenWills18 Comments

From the commanding location of Dun Aonghasa, looking northeast across Inishmore island, we can understand why the ancient builders chose this location.

We also see the transition from exposed limestone to the fields built literally from the ground up (see my post “The How of Soil”). For a closer view of island houses see my posts “Settled In” and “Cottage Road Cottage.”

The field walls are described in my posts, “What is a rock, what is a stone?” and “Stone on Stone.”

Click the photograph for a larger view. Enjoy!!

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands

Breaking waves, turquoise sea below the dramatic cliffs of the ancient fort Dun Aonghasa (Dun Aengus),

in the distance the karst landscape of Inishmore with clouds of an approaching storm over Galway Bay.

Sea Campion (scientific name: Silene uniflora) (irish name: Coireán mara) clings to the edge.

Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland.

View east, southeast from the Cliff Edge of the Ancient fort wal

Click me for the first post of this series, “Horse Trap on Inishmore.”

Cliff Edge I

Beware of falling rock

June 1, 2022May 24, 2022 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

From the commanding location of Dun Aonghasa, looking northeast across Inishmore island, we can understand why the ancient builders chose this location.

The field walls are described in my posts, “What is a rock, what is a stone?” and “Stone on Stone.”

Click the photograph for a larger view. Enjoy!!

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands

Breaking waves below the dramatic cliffs of the ancient fort Dun Aonghasa (Dun Aengus),

in the distance the karst landscape of Inishmore with clouds of an approaching storm over Galway Bay.

A crack in the limestone foretells the next cliff erosion, “don’t step there!!.”

Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland.