lake | kritterspix

Greens Peak

Posted on June 22, 2024 by kritterspaw

North of Pinetop / Lakeside is an area known as Greens Peak. At over 10,000 ft, it gets plenty of snow in the winter, and is lush green in the summer. Hidden back along a well marked dirt road is one of our favorite places to camp, Carnero Lake.

I used to leave it’s actual name out of my posts, as it’s ‘our’ place. But it seems it has been discovered and become a bit over populated for our taste. Nonetheless, it remains a weedy haven for ducks and coots, and the occasional eagle and osprey.

For us, it’s a peaceful respite and place to relax and enjoy nature in all it’s glory.

Alstrom Point

Posted on April 9, 2024 by kritterspaw

Alstom Point is one of those stunningly beautiful overlooks that is hard to get to, but in the end, worth the journey. The point lies just past Page, AZ across the border of Utah, along a 40 mile dirt road that turns treacherous, rock crawling, and hard to navigate.

The view at the end of the journey is it’s reward, with sprawling vantage points of Lake Powell and Gunsight Butte. The Lake was significantly low, at only 31% of full (or 141 feet below full), but offered new canyons, waterways, and ridges to gawk at from high above.

Our first camping trip of the year was only for an unfortunate short period of time, but the view while it lasted was memorable.

Knot grass

Posted on July 21, 2023 by kritterspaw

I’m not by any means a ‘plant person’. I have more of a black thumb than green. But I do enjoy the wildflowers that grow on the hills in the summer, the colorful arrays along the roadside, and the occasional wildflowers we might find in our travels.

As a photographer, I have found myself learning all kinds of new things we find along the way. iNaturalist is certainly a helpful tool I carry on my phone to assist in the identification of something I am unfamiliar with, as it did for these knotgrass we found at the Lake.

Knotgrass is a perennial plant that grows in clusters that spread along the base. It is enjoyed by the small insects and birds along rocky wet soil. Knotgrass or knotweed is a type of water smartweed, which I mentioned here … https://kritterspix.com/2023/07/13/smart-weeds/. There are actually 6 species of this Persicaria plant in Arizona.

For us, it made an attractive backdrop during our day at the lake.

Summer is wrought with widespread weeds, evasive and native. I often find weeds are a matter of perspective. Webster’s Dictionary defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth”. Yet wildflowers, by their very nature, are indeed weeds. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Luna Lake

Posted on August 5, 2022August 5, 2022 by kritterspaw

Luna Lake is nearly on the border of New Mexico in the upper Northeastern part of Arizona, east of Alpine.

This time of year the grassy foreground is littered with wildflowers and water fowl.

It was a beautiful scenic spot, not particularly crowded. As we left early in the morning, we were delighted to find a herd of baby elk being shepherded by doting mom’s trying to teach them how to jump the fence. We did not want to disturb them, so didn’t stay long, but enjoyed the show.

We travel around the state quite a bit enjoying what nature shows us. We are always delighted by what we find, and humbled by what I can (or can’t) capture..

Dog Town

Posted on July 15, 2022 by kritterspaw

Dog town Lake is one of the many little lakes that litter our desert state of Arizona.

We knew we were in for a good time when we saw an osprey on the tree just outside our camp.

We had a great time watching the osprey fish, and were even gifted with a bald eagle.

Dogtown Lake is situated just outside of Williams, AZ, and has a great view of the Bill Williams Mountain.

It’s definitely a place worthy of another visit, if only for the osprey watching.

Alamo Lake

Posted on March 6, 2022June 2, 2023 by kritterspaw

It was my first time at Alamo Lake. I wasn’t sure what to expect. There isn’t much there but a campground and a lake. We brought the boat and figured we’d get some fish and some photographs.

While we didn’t get any fish, we got more than we bargained for when we saw a number of interesting, and unexpected wildlife.

We saw wild burro’s, very likely decedents of the Spaniards in the 1600’s or AZ miners, wandering the hills and coming down for water.

We saw grebes and blue heron…

.. and were surprised to find white, and brown, pelican.

As it turns out we got more than we expected, and were delightfully surprised.

Hawley Lake

Posted on September 28, 2019September 28, 2019 by kritterspaw

Further to my ‘Lake’ collection, we visited a number of blue smears on the map.

Admittedly they had some verbiage that indicated that there was water there… like Mexican Hay Lake and Lee Valley Reservoir, I was quickly reminded that this is Arizona.

The ‘Lakes’ that we made our way to for photos were in fact, nothing by dry holes! So much for that idea! Maybe Spring after snowfall is a better time to do the Lake trek.

The good news was we found water in abundance at Hawley Lake outside of Pinetop-Lakeside. Even better news was that on our loop around looking for actual water in those fictitious lakes was that we did manage to encounter a variety of willing animals to photograph.

Like this blue heron that seemed like he wanted to say something to me. Or the chipmunk that posed for me.

I caught these antelope running through the fields of yellow flowers along the road outside of Greer.

One thing the trip made clear… winter is coming. The overnight lows were chilly. I’m not sure how many more lakes we will be about to get in, as snow will be soon following, along with closed roads.

Hard to imagine.. but Christmas is just around the corner. Get your winter woolies out!

Reflections of Blue Ridge Reservoir

Posted on August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 by kritterspaw

There is something magical about sunrises and sunsets, and when combined with the soothing comfort of water – it makes for stunning scenery.

It was a full moon the other day, so we decided to get some pix of Blue Ridge Reservoir at night… and in the morning. The light cast by the full moon lit up the daisies growing through the patchwork rock that lines the ridges above the lake.

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The forest and it’s trees come right down to the waters edge at Blue Ridge.

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A brisk calm morning greeted us with gorgeous clouds and fantastic reflections in her still waters. It doesn’t get any more relaxing than waking up to gorgeous scenery and the serenity of a calm sea and her comforting embrace of the beauty that surrounds her.

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Bartlett Lake

Posted on March 4, 2018March 6, 2018 by kritterspaw

cacti glow_IR.jpg

You know, I live in Arizona, and it still astonishes me the delta in temperatures and climates in a mere 3 hours. I do believe the delta is getting larger as time goes on. It used to be 20F, now it borders on 30 – 40F difference between northern AZ and the Phx area. When we left our home in the mountains it was snowing, 20F with 4 inches of snow on the ground.

When we arrived at Bartlett Lake, outside of Carefree, AZ, just 3 hours south, it was 78F, and people were in shorts and t-shirts. Crazy!

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We soaked up the sun before heading back to our cool climate.

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It’s Whats for Dinner

Posted on June 20, 2015 by kritterspaw

My www.krittersmenu.com has a category, It’s What’s For Dinner. In the terms of my foodie blog… it’s what we have for dinner and recipes and ideas worthy of sharing.

On this photography blog, it’s not so much what we had for dinner… but what our fair weathered friends did, making for a photographic story of nature and the food chain. Case in point, this blue heron in search of a meal.

The hunt

The target identified

The catch

Gulp!

It’s What’s for Dinner.