Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman is a National Park about a 25 min drive from Chandler where we are staying and it is somewhere I have wanted to go since the Air Conditioning guy recommended it to me. At this point a good writer would regale you with the history of the place, explaining the interesting name and so forth, but alas, I don't know it and haven't even bothered to find out (well come on, I have scorpions to scorpinate). My dear friend and guide Tom (Tom) took me there on a particularly out-of-the-way route ('root' and not 'r-out' people, sort it oot!) as is his wont, and dutifully I followed even though I could clearly see a better way, for fear of upsetting him. I already had a photograph in mind when I arrived, as I often do, and began to search for the spot from which to compose it. I wanted the mountain in the background, with a classic cactus standing tall to the left or right of shot.
When I say a 'classic' cactus I mean like in the cartoons, with only two arms pointing outwards and then upwards like a man in the 'bowing-down' position, preferably with the arms slightly out of line from each other, so that one is higher than the other. Surely in a host of thousands, perhaps millions, there must be one such cactus, after all it is the cactus used on numerous logos all around Arizona. Nope. Not a single one. I took my little SUV off-road in search of the thing and everywhere I went I had the distinct impression that the birds were laughing at me, with a shrill mocking laugh. Everywhere I looked there were cactuses (I am nothing if not stubborn) clearly giving me the middle finger, or standing side by side so that they could give me a more English insult. I soon realised that the desert is a dangerous place for ones' sanity, and I decided to move on and begin my hike up Superstition. 
I have three different lenses for my camera, a wide angled zoom for landscape, a 250mm zoom for wildlife and a 50mm for portraits and close up. Changing them is fairly easy when time is not an issue, but it can be fiddly when trying to keep dust out of the camera and the lenses whilst walking. I was desperate to see some of the wildlife, particularly lizards and snakes, even though the thought of stumbling across a sidewinder struck fear into my very soul. I will tell you now that I didn't see any snakes, to save you from becoming expectant and then having your hopes dashed, but I didn't have to wait long to see a lizard. Seeing a lizard and taking a picture of a lizard are two very different things, because these little guys are seriously quick. I saw two shoot out from underneath a shrub as I approached and disappear before I could even look at them properly. I caught sight of another running from shrub to shrub and I tried to follow him, although it was a bit like that game magicians do with the three cups, and I wasn't exactly sure which bush it was under. I crept around the one I thought, and it was there, standing on a rock.
I held my breath and slowly took my camera out of my bag, desperately hoping it wouldn't run off, only to discover that I had left my 50mm lens on the camera body.There was no way I would be able to get close enough to take a decent photo with that and I knew I'd have to change it. I tried to be as quick as I could without making any sudden movements, fitted the lens, removed the lens cap, checked the light settings and managed one shot, the sound of which sent the lizard into hyper drive and he was gone. When I got home later I discovered that it was in fact a Zebra-Tailed Lizard, the fastest lizard in the desert. My very own Speedy Gonzalez, though without the poncho and moustache.
