A Horse Lubber. Not the two legged kind, but one mighty big and beautifully patterned grasshopper! In late August early September these giants start showing themselves, and pretty soon they are crawling all over the place. Called the Horse Lubber (Taeniopoda eques) because of its resemblance to a horse to the person that named it (Go figure!), these very large grasshoppers feed on grasses and mesquite, but will eat insect flesh if they come across it. Said to be noxious tasting, these large insects seem to avoided by birds and other predators. I found some wonderful field photos by biologist and water color painter Margarethe Brummermann Ph.D. here (scroll down).
This one (below) was close to three inches long, and in some of the canyons around these parts, mile wide swarms of these interesting insects have been spotted marching off  (they tend to walk rather than hop) to greener browse.

A short clip to show how they move:

Here is my grasshopper photo I made before ever setting eyes on one of these stunning Romaleidae. Wish I would have seen one of these first!