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Archive for the ‘National’ Category

Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Visited Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Above, two kestrals. The one in the top picture has blood on it’s feet.

Two meadowlarks. Think the second one is a young one.

Sage thrasher

Swainson’s hawk

Below: Saw some white pelicans soaring and gliding at the refuge one day. The next day a very large flock were near my campground at Storrie Lake State Park. Half of them were preening and the other half were in a very large fishing group working their way along the shoreline. Pelicans are not common in this area, so I assume this is a flock migrating south (like me).

Posted in American kestrel, hawk, Las Vegas, meadowlark, National, pelican, sparrow, State, thrasher | No Comments »

Highway 64 through Taos

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Highway 64 starts a short distance from the El Vado Lake State Park and heads east through Taos to the town of Raton, near the border with Colorado. You go through Carson National Forest, with golden aspen trees this time of year. Then there is a stretch of desert before Taos, where people are building some interesting underground homes with decorative roofs. After Taos, you head back into the Carson National Forest. There follows the town of Eagle Nest, with Eagle Nest Lake State Park at 8,200 feet elevation. Cimarron Canyon is next, with it’s own state park and wildlife management area. You then drive through a dry grassland area to reach Raton.

This is just a beautiful drive. I took it in 2007 and managed to run out of gas in the Carson Forest. The first and only time (so far) I’ve had this happen, although there have been many close calls. In subsequent years, it has been either too early or too late in the year to travel to northern New Mexico by the time I reached the state. This year I may well stay in north-central New Mexico until it gets to cold.

Above, some healthy looking pronghorns near Raton. There were even some on undeveloped land in the city limits.

Cotton from cottonwood trees seen in Taos and Raton.

I stayed in a BLM campground in the Colorado River Gorge next to Taos one night. Saw the bird above, which I believe is a canyon towhee.

Stayed at Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton for a few days. It is on a site that was a company built coal mining town in the first part of the 20th century. There are two reservoirs there that are popular fishing spots. The forest is made up of cottonwood, oak, and ponderosa pine trees.

Above, a black-capped chickadee. Below, while birdwatching came upon two mule deer. Turned around and let them have the trail.

Below, Carson National Forest at the start of the west end of Highway 64. Cattle graze in the cleared grass area.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, chickadee, deer, elk, National, Raton, State, Taos, towhee | Comments Off

Utah Rocks

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

Drove UT 191 through Monument Valley and Blanding, Utah. Monument Valley makes me think of Thelma and Louise. Know John Ford made a lot of western’s here too.

The village of Mexican Hat’s name is based on the rock formation on the left side of the picture. There is a rv park in town with great views and hookups.

Valley of the Gods. There is a dirt road that goes through it. Didn’t drive it this visit.

Gooseneck State Park near Mexican Hat. It is a viewpoint of the formation created by the San Juan River seen above. Morning would have been a better time to get a picture, but late afternoon had to do.

Took the time to visit Natural Bridges National Monument. It’s a beautiful park with a scenic drive that allows you to see it’s three rock bridges. The top picture above is of Sipapu Bridge. The picture below it is of Owachomo Bridge. It looks to be the most fragile one. My eyes showed my age, as it was hard for me to find Owachomo Bridge. Some young European tourists came up and found it right away.

There are trails through the park and a small campground (for small rv’s).

Utah 95, that goes by Natural Bridges National Monument, is a scenic byway. In the center of the top picture you see the where the highway goes through a long rocky ridge. The picture under it is the passage as you go through it on the way to the Monument.

Stayed at a campground in the Manti-LaSal National Forest above the town of Blanding. At 7,100 feet, in a juniper and pinyon pine forest, it was a lot cooler than Monument Valley and Mexican Hat. There were lots of birds too. Below is a scrub jay that just pulled some kind of treat from the pine tree, a pine nut? A large flock of pinyon jays flew through the campground in the late afternoon. They were too fast for me to get a picture.

The bottom picture is of a Clark’s nutcracker.

Posted in Blanding, Clark's nutcracker, jay, Monument Valley, National, State | Comments Off

North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time. Above is Angels Window. The Colorado River can be seen through the window. The tiny specks on top are people. There is a paved pathway out to the viewpoint.

The view here is towards the Navajo Indian Reservation.

View from the Visitor Center and lodge.

I was really impressed more by the forest here than the canyon views. The South Rim, at 7,000 feet elevation, has a forest of ponderosa pine and junipers. The North Rim, at between 8,200 and 9,200 feet elevation, is made up of quaking aspen, blue spruce, and white and Douglas fir trees.

Aspen trees thrive after a fire because of their extensive root system. Their roots send out new shoots within weeks of a fire. In the second picture above, the aspen trees are providing protection for young spruce trees.

Arizona 67 passes through meadows on the Kaibab Plateau on it’s way to the Canyon. There are holes that retain water from rain and snow in the meadows that draw animals and birds out from the surrounding forest, mainly in the early morning or evening. I saw a fox one time, but it was too fast in getting back into the woods, so I didn’t get a picture.

Crane Lake has a fence around it to keep cows from accessing it. It is really just a marshy pond at this time of the year. Saw a number of birds come out from the woods in flocks to get water including: Clark’s nutcrackers, Northern flickers (shown below), and robins. Black necked stilts and ducks were also in the pond.

This area is one of the few places where there are still California condors in the wild. Lead bullets that hunters use has been keeping the condor population down.

Posted in Clark's nutcracker, Jacob Lake, National, northern flicker | Comments Off

Birds & Squirrels

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Stayed a few days at a Dixie National Forest Campground at Duck Creek. It’s along another scenic route, Highway 14, in Utah, 28 miles from Cedar City and 8,600 feet in elevation. Found it good for bird watching.

Above, a black-eyed junco subspecie. It hopped up to me while I was sitting outside as the sun was going down.

Northern flicker

A black-capped chickadee by a pine cone that a squirrel had knocked off a spruce tree that morning.

Got so many stellar jay pictures, it was hard to choose which one to show.

At times there were 6-12 least chipmunks (top picture) around my campsite. They have a nervous run and stop action. They would often stop and look at me, as if they were trying to see if I were a friend or foe. Most of the time I’d stamp my feet and shoo them away. They are so small, I was afraid they would try and get into my trailer. There was only one of the squirrels shown in the second picture. It was the one who knocked the pine cones down from the trees in the morning. It also jumped and held onto the middle of my screen door several times, I think when it smelled food.

Drove into Cedar City one day to get supplies from their Walmart. On the way, came across a huge number of sheep coming over a hill and crossing the highway. There was no sheepherder or dogs in sight. Tourists, like me, stopped to watch. Locals slowly drove through the sheep to continue on their business. After around 20 minutes, a sheepherder on a horse and his two dogs appeared and directed the sheep back across the highway and over the hill.

Below, Navajo Lake around 5 miles from Duck Creek. Utah also has trees dying from beetle damage.

Posted in Cedar City, chickadee, jay, junco, National, sheep | Comments Off

Utah, Scenic Byway 12

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

I drove through Idaho quickly because of severe weather warnings, including high winds and freezing temps. Ended up in the Salt Lake City, Utah area on the Friday of the Labor Day Weekend. It was in the high 90′s. Just stayed one night and then headed to the town of Torrey, Utah, near Capitol Reef National Park and the start (or end) of Utah’s Scenic Byway 12.

Picture above, near the town of Torrey.

View of Capitol Reef National Park from Highway 12. The weather started out nice in Torrey, but it quickly turned cloudy a little way down the road.

There are dense stands of aspen trees in the first part of route.

The highway wasn’t bad to drive. Drove in 3rd gear on the steep grades. There was only a short section where the right side of the road is eroding, and the left side is a mountainside, making the highway narrow.

Above, views near Escalante. I stayed one night at the State Park there.

Stopped for two different groups of female wild turkey’s crossing the highway.

Below, one of the rock tunnels near Red Canyon at the end (or start) of Highway 12. Next time I drive the route, want to make at least three stops to explore more, on the first, middle, and end sections.

Tags: Escalante
Posted in Escalante, National, State, Torrey, turkeys | Comments Off

Montana’s forests in peril

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Anyone who has traveled in Montana has seen all the damage beetles have done to their forests. Nowhere is this more evident than around the state’s capital, Helena. It looks like almost all the trees you see from the city are dead. The picture above is from a campground in the Helena National Forest. The red trees are dying and the gray trees on the right side of the picture are just skeletons. It looks like the policy is to let them die and blend in somewhat with the green trees.

I know in the Helena Forest, and in other parts of the state, patches are put on some of the trees to repel beetles. Some National Forests and BLM areas are using controlled burns on the worst sections. I’ve wondered why Helena doesn’t do this to all the dead trees that can be seen from the city. In Glacier National Park they say they are just spraying the more valuable trees that take centuries to grow.

Stayed at an RV park in Three Forks, Montana to wait out a 2 day storm. Wanted to have hookups and internet access if I was stuck inside.

I’m seeing a lot of this plant in the National Forests in Montana. It looks like spotted knapweed, an invasive weed that the Forest Service and BLM want to get rid of.

I stayed a few days in a National Forest campground on the edge of the Lolo Forest. It was a dry area near Missoula with mainly ponderosa pine and little understory.

Next stop was Aspen Grove Campground in the Helena National Forest. On the third day at the campground I saw a least chipmunk jump onto one of my front truck tires. Bells went off as I realized it might be trying to nest in the motor area. Sure enough, on lifting the hood, the chipmunk’s head popped up several times. I propped the truck hood up about a foot, as I’ve seen other campers do to keep critters out of their engines.

On subsequently talking with a camp host in a Utah campground, found he uses the two-day rule. He moves his car every two days to prevent squirrels from nesting in the engine. In my case, my truck had been sitting for 3 days, leading me to believe there might be something to the two day rule.

Below, a hairy woodpecker.

Posted in Airstream, Helena, National, squirrel, Three Forks, woodpecker | Comments Off

Beartooth Scenic Highway, Oh My!

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Drove through Yellowstone National Park to get to Cooke City and a National Forest Service campground in order to drive the Beartooth Scenic Highway (US Highway 212). It is an unbelievably beautiful drive. I kept saying “wow” at every turn.

Above, pictures of the summit, at close to 11,000 feet.

The above picture is a view from the road around 25 miles from Cooke City. All the time I was there, it was clear and nice in the mornings, but in the afternoon a thunderstorm would pass through. The storm would pass after a few hours, only to have another one come through in the late afternoon.

Large hail I encountered on my first drive on the highway. Not tennis ball size, but large enough that at first I thought rocks were hitting my windshield. Couldn’t figure out where they were coming from, as no other cars were around. Pulled to the side of the road and waited for the hail to stop. Felt sorry for all the motorcyclists on the road. It seems to be a favorite road of theirs and they had to ride in a lot of bad weather.

Beartooth Lake

The road on the “Cooke City side” as it starts to climb to the summit.

The road on the Red Lodge side of the summit.

I would not want to be driving on the Red Lodge side during an earthquake. There is a lot of loose dirt and rocks.

A marmot seen when I pulled over to take some pictures.

The original campground I had planned to stay at was closed at the end of July because of increased bear activity. The one I stayed at stopped allowing tent camping because of a bear sighting.

Above are marks on a tree at my campsite where a bear had torn off bark to get to the inner bark that they like. Never saw any bears though. Darn!

Had originally planned to stay at the Mammoth Hot Springs campground in Yellowstone. When I got there, however, I found it to be hot and crowded, so I proceeded on to Cooke City.

Above, a picture of the town of Gardner near the entrance to Yellowstone.

The landmark entrance to Yellowstone. Always wanted to get a picture of it.

It was still early when I passed through Lamar Valley in Yellowstone, where there is a large herd of bison. It is the season for male and female bison to co-mingle. The male bison were making growling sounds and sticking out their tongues, while staying close to a female bison. Passed a pair of bison walking down the middle of the road towards Cooke City, out of Yellowstone Park. A ranger said they do not go after them. The female bison had a tracking device around her neck though.

Posted in Airstream, bison, Cooke City, Gardiner, marmot, National | Comments Off

Earthquake Lake

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Spent some time at Earthquake Lake near West Yellowstone. A ~7.5 earthquake that occurred in 1959 killed 28 people when 80 million tons of earth from a mountain collapsed and blocked the Madison River. Water quickly started to rise behind the blockage, creating a 190′ deep, six mile long lake. The lake is slowly leaking back to the Madison River, and in one or two centuries it is expected to be gone. Many dead tree trunks remain in the lake, providing a place for cormorants to perch at night.

Above, the collapsed mountain earth doesn’t look 50-years-old, except for the trees that have grown in the center of the picture. The picture below it is of the Madison River and Highway 287 looking north from the landslide.

An eagle surprised me when it flew by. Must have been perched nearby. The birds around me seemed to react to it. Didn’t get many pictures of birds. The mosquitoes kept me inside. The camp host said it rained all of June, making for a bad mosquito season.

A beautiful black bear also surprised me by running in front of my truck on the campground road. There were also sightings of a female moose and it’s calf, but I missed this.

The rains also brought lots of beautiful wildflowers.

Posted in eagle, National, West Yellowstone | Comments Off

More from West Yellowstone

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Midway Geyser Basin

Found one place that was not super crowded, Fairy Falls trail. Rode my bike on the gravel trail, but really needed a dirt bike. Great bird watching area: bluebirds, northern flickers, and a western tanager (seen above).

Juvenile bald eagle seen next to the Madison River by my campground. Two adult eagles were in a tree just out of camera range.

A lone bison bull was walking along the road two days in a row. They aren’t stupid. It’s a lot easier traveling on the road than through the woods.

Two days in a row, on leaving the park around 8:30 pm, found myself in a huge traffic jam. Just turned the motor off several times. Subsequently found it was two elk bulls with massive antlers in the Madison River that were causing people to stop for pictures.

Posted in bison, eagle, National, tanager, West Yellowstone | No Comments »

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