November 17 -- Snow, Fall Colors, And The Spectacle Of Cave Creek Canyon

It had spit very light snow yesterday down in the Portal area, and very little of it had stuck to the ground. On the other hand, in the higher elevations starting at around 5500 feet (Portal is at 4700), it had most definitely stuck -- so I had to check it out. But I was going to wait for it to warm up; it was just a little over freezing when I took the first photos at dawn, showing Silver Peak --

The dusting of snow there probably wasn't going to last the day...But the high Chiricahuas, on the other hand -- 

Even there, starting at around 8000 feet, the snow was probably only about an inch or two at most. (A friend on the Cochise County FB website had taken a photo of the west side of the Chiricahuas later that morning; it looked like that side had received more snow.) But it was still pretty -- and it was the first major storm of the season. Here's a closer look of the same scene -- 

The light from the sunrise sun was just hitting it. A bit later, I took a photo of Silver Peak and the high Chiricahuas int the distance on the left -- 

At around 9am I headed out, armed with the 100-400 for telephoto landscapes, and the 17-55 for the standard ones. As I was going down Faranuf Trail (i.e., my driveway) I saw a juvenile Cooper's hawk ( or Sharp-shinned; they're hard to tell apart at that age) at one of the main gate posts. I stopped, took out the 100-400 to shoot through Tundra's front windshield -- and realized I'd left the CF memory card in the card reader back in the house; there was no card in the camera. Crapola!  While keeping one eye on the Cooper's (and he was already getting fidgety) I put the CF card from the landscape camera into the one with the 100-400, and just managed to get two shots off -- one decent, the other fuzzy -- before he took off -- 

That thingie to the right on the post is a solar-powered light, with along with another on the opposite post illuminates the front gate area at night. I tell ya, the original (previous) owners here thought of EVERYthing... 

I went down Foothills Road, in front of the house, first to get views of the high-desert landscape with the canyon in the background. I even managed to get agave and cactus in the foreground -- 

A good beginning for a morning of views after the storm... I headed up Portal Road and took another, closer scenic of Cave Creek Canyon, this time with the "line of gold" running up Cave Creek -- 

Heading down what had now become Forest Service Road 42, I got a closer look at Silver Peak -- 

I had the 17-55 f/2.8 lens, on the Canon 7D MK I body, on manual focus as the AF was on the fritz; the AF wouldn't lock on, constantly hunting. I'll have to take it in to the Canon service center in Orange County when I'm back in So Cal for Christmas...The fall colors were still spectacular and at peak; I guess the canyon was protected from the high winds we'd experienced before the entrance to it. Eye Candy was all the way up the road -- 

Just before Stewart Campground, looking east

Cave Creek, looking west

Fall color and canyon walls

I went past the spur road up South Fork and over to Cave Creek. (It's a bit confusing, with these two creeks. One of the drainages is Cave Creek, while the other is South Fork. When the two meet, the creek combining the two is then called Cave Creek.) I pass the Southwestern Research Station (run by the Museum of Natural History) and hang a left on the dirt Cave Creek Road, also known as the road to Herb Martyr (the name of the campground at the end of the road; Herb Martyr was the name of a worker who died while the small dam there was being built and yes, Martyr was his real last name). I drove to John Hands day area, bordering Cave Creek. The snow created another layer to an already picturesque landscape -- 

I don't do many closeups, but with the snow layer the rocks, I couldn't resist -- 

The unique mix of fall color, snow and filtered sunlight was irresistible -- 

The snow on the road, and increasingly icy conditions, was making driving sketchy, so I stopped and took a photo, when the view opened up, looking in the direction of Winn Falls, whose overlook I'd hiked to the day before -- 

Winn Falls, about a 400-foot cascade when it's full, is in the shaded area in the center. I zoomed in using the 100-400 lens -- 

There's Winn Falls in the center. It's -- frozen. 

As it's in a cleft of the wall, it rarely gets the winter sun, so what water is in the cascade, and wet areas on its sides that gets the spray,  freezes. An amazing sight -- but there are many such views in Cave Creek Canyon and the Chiricahuas. As there was no other cars on the road, I took a photo of Tundra and the Silver Peak massif looking east -- 

The Cave Creek Road was getting increasingly dicey, so I turned around and went back down the road past the research station. There are a few houses along the way, and plenty of autumnal color. Here's looking up to the canyon walls there -- 

Sheesh, I didn't want the morning to end...I'd deliberately passed Vista Point earlier in the morning as the sun hadn't reached the point in the sky were both drainages were in sunlight. I parked in the small parking lot (really more of a turnout) and headed up the 200-yard trail -- 

Pretty magical stuff, with the oak trees and sunlit path. Yucca and small pockets of autumn color were along the trail -- 

And then -- Vista Point. I think I'd picked THE perfect time to come there (well, it would have been perfect if there'd been clouds, but otherwise it was). Here's looking more or less northwest, towards the Cave Creek drainage and the peaks with Winn Falls -- 

A closer view -- 

As you can see, the view is above the forest canopy, and the autumnal Arizona sycamore and other colorful trees line Cave Creek. You pull back to get the full view of both drainages with agave and waving grasses -- 

Back down the trail, heading to the truck -- 

Magical. Heading back down FS Road 42, you get a view of Cathedral Rock -- 

More autumn color -- 

Cave Creek, looking upstream -- 

And a closeup of some of the rock formations on Silver Peak. 

What a morning. The rest of the day was devoted to errands; perhaps I'll list those some other time. The Eye Candy is enough for now. OK, one last look, near the Visitor Info Center --