june one: explore

Beautiful desert

including fantastic sandstone formations
wildflowers
bat guano stained caves

lizards aplenty
and high-in-the-sky (so high in the sky) swallow spit and mud nests.
Up the canyon, then, to

hot springsa orb-maker spider's web. (We don't see those too often.)

and a snake skin
Pass the dwr people on the way and talk to them about what they're doing.... just beginning a survey on the river. We decided that maybe we'd talk to them on the way down, if we saw them.

Shortly we see a sandpiper

a Cicada
a beaver's dam
and up we go into even higher country.
So, so beautiful.
Our home territory is very generous with its landscapes.... you can go from red sandy desert to lush mountain forest habitat in a matter of a couple of minutes.
Sigh.

there were caterpillars

mountain bluebirds

hundreds of wild flowers

bones of a predator
I think these are Melissa Blues.
Coming back down towards home with our hearts and spirits full-to-bursting,
what do we see,
but an incredible Great Basin Rattlesnake.We were thrilled, let me tell you.
Eventually we left him to his business, and thanked him profusely for sharing himself with us for several minutes.

A little while later Daddy gets his wish and we do, indeed, meet another fine specimen named Mr. Bull Snake.

(these are Maddie's hands)

Snakes tickle, you know.

We find the dwr people and they show us the cutthroats they are surveying.... and Good News! the non-native German Browns are not to be found..

We finally arrive at Frog Country (which is where we'd planned to go all along)
and enjoyed the last gifts that Mama Nature had for us today.
It was an incredible day.
We are blessed.