Tam Ryan Photography: Jan 4, 2011

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Day Trip - December 30, 2010

I woke up early to take a drive over to Superstition Mountain by myself to see if there was any snow on it before picking up my friend, Eric, for the planned drive to Canyon Lake, Tortilla Flat, Goldfield Mine and Superstition Mountain Museum area, in that order.

Even though there wasn't any snow on the mountain, I liked what I saw and stopped to take this picture from Brown Road before turning off to the left to get some closer images of the mountain from the Superstition Mountain Museum area.

Superstition Mountain view from Brown Road, Apache Jct.

Superstition Mountains

Here is another view from the Superstition Mountain Museum property showing The Elvis Memorial Chapel, Apache Land and the stagecoach.

The Elvis Memorial Chapel at Superstition Mountain Museum

After some walking around in a bit of mud and around Cholla (jumping cactus), I finished my shots and then called Eric to see if he'd like to have breakfast before heading out to Canyon Lake. We had breakfast just down the road from where I live and then headed up Brown Road going East toward the Superstition Mountains. We didn't stop to take pictures there or at Goldfield Ghost Town until later that afternoon. Our mission was to find snow in the desert or on top of some surrounding mountains.

When we got to Canyon Lake, there was a breathtaking view of the lake from a lookout point. It had just started to snow and we got out quickly to take some pictures. We continued along the windy and sometimes hairpin curves and found another spectacular view of Canyon Lake as the snow turned into tiny pellets of hail. Despite the high wind and chill factor, we both got out of the car, Eric in his shorts and T-shirt (as always), and I with my new winter coat (thank goodness)! It looked like fog rolling in across the lake. But, it was actually the snow creating that hazy effect as you can see in this image below.

Canyon Lake

When Eric and I arrived to this view of Canyon Lake, it was still snowing and hailing. Look for the white spots in the picture and you will see the hail. It snowed and hailed all the way from there into Tortilla Flat.

Canyon Lake

We stopped in Tortilla Flat for at least an hour. The first stop was the restaurant to get a cup of hot chocolate! It was freezing cold up there! Here's the view of Tortilla Flat as we approached this 'one horse' town.

Arriving at Tortilla Flat, Arizona

By the time we were done with our hot chocolate, visiting with some other people sitting at the bar and checking out the gift shop, it had stopped snowing and most of it had already melted. We took a walk along the front of the buildings to see the other sights, one of which had a hangman hanging from the top of the building. We continued on toward where the water was flowing on the road past the town and took some nice shots of the stream and surrounding hillsides. But, we didn't go further up the road because there was a strong stream of water covering it. Several large pick-up trucks attempted to cross and made it. But, the smaller cars were waiting for the stream to turn into a trickle. The view was perfect from there as the sun came in and out of the clouds that were trying to break from the earlier storm.

Tortilla Flat

On the way back toward the restaurant and car, I stopped to take a picture of the red, worn out paint on one of the buildings. In the window there, you could see the reflection of part of the hillside that I had just photographed. See photo above this one.

Reflections from the past

After driving past this area earlier in the day, Eric and I headed back to this location overlooking Canyon Lake on the way back to Mesa. By the time we got there, the snow had been accumulating for an hour or so on Four Peaks. This is an HDR (high definition range) processed image.


A view of Four Peaks covered in snow from Canyon Lake (HDR processing)

The rain and snow had stopped once we left this scene. But, it was still very cold and windy. We were using the last of the days light when we arrived at Goldfield Ghost Town. We had time to check out The Mammoth Saloon, order a Sasparilla root beer and and then check out some of the shops that were still open.

Mammoth Saloon - Goldfield Ghost

Superstition Mountain

I took more images of Superstition Mountain and the last images were of the old rusted out Ford trucks and cars in behind the Mine area. The day started with not knowing whether or not we would see the snow we had hoped for and ended with some amazing views from Canyon Lake, of Four Peaks covered in snow, as well as, each and every point of interest that we had visited that day being all that we had hoped for and more!