Signs of Spring

 The snow is slowly melting...and then we get another snow flurry! Nevertheless, there are clear signs that spring is on its way.

Here are two of the first wildflowers of the year, both closely related. One is Nevada Parsley. I'm not sure on the other.

For St. Patrick's Day, Desert Girl made a Leprechaun spotter, inspired by her cousin George who we had chatted with on Facetime. I don't think she found any pots of gold. But she got a little more gold for a second front tooth that fell out. Now she's singing, "All I want for Easter are my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth..."

Desert Boy discovered using a magnifying glass to burn letters and designs into wood. He spent a couple hours doing it and has some grander plans in mind.

 The spring storms are so pretty, with very interesting clouds.

The heifers and their calves are near our house. We've been trying to keep our new gate closed more (they jump right over the cattle guard), and that's been helping us keep them out of the yard.

 One morning we awoke to very low clouds. It was so cool, as this is a rarity here.

What signs of spring are you seeing?

Spring Wildflowers up Hendry's Creek

Back in late spring (mid-May, I think), we took a Sunday drive up Hendry's Creek (en route to doing some ranch work for my husband). I was amazed by the orange desert floor, lit up by globemallow.

We continued driving up the road until we got to the Hendry's Creek trailhead. Hendry's Creek is the main trail on the east side of the North Snake Range, especially now that the Hampton Creek road has been obliterated by the flooding following the wildfire.

It must have been a chilly morning if Desert Boy had to wear his winter coat!

It was warm enough that flowers were blooming and insects were pollinating them.

We didn't get far when we reached the obstacle. The trail crossed the creek bed. While it is sometimes dry here (like last fall), on this spring day it was roaring, and we didn't feel like getting our shoes wet.

So we hiked towards the cliffs and found a beautiful patch of Solomon's seal, a wetland-loving plant.

As we climbed higher, we got a nice view of the cottonwood-lined creek from the lichen-covered cliffs.

We could have gone farther, but we decided that was enough hiking, so we headed back down.

On the way we saw a gopher snake on the trail. These are awesome snakes, they eat a lot of rodents. I wouldn't mind a few more near our house!

I wanted to spend some more time with the flowers and I had my bike, so my husband and the kids went on in the truck, and I took a leisurely bike ride back down, stopping for photos.

When I came down the bench further and saw the majestic snow-covered Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peaks, I took a ton of photos. What a beautiful sight!

Exploring the New Basin and Range National Monument, Nevada

About a month ago I joined some friends and acquaintances to do some exploring in the new Basin and Range National Monument, located in south-central Nevada. This national monument was designated in July 2015. It is managed by the BLM and is huge--about 704,000 acres. There is no visitor center, no amenities, few signs, and few paved roads (Nevada Highway 318 goes through part of it.) Here's a link to the BLM website with a map and more info.

We had topo maps, 4WD vehicles, and a sense of exploration.

The fossils in the Joana limestone are terrific, with lots of crinoids.

This crinoid stem had a nice star shape in the middle.

The northern end of the national monument is in the Great Basin desert, but at the southern end it is a transition zone to the Mojave desert, and cholla appear.

There are a few homesteads on the monument, including this abandoned sheep ranch.

This is a corral in a different part of the monument, when I approached from Highway 318 north of White River Narrows. I liked the series of mountain ranges framed by the corral entrance.

Most of Coal Valley is encompassed by the monument. I thought the sagebrush looked really healthy in much of the valley, and there wasn't much cheatgrass, which was nice.

There is cattle grazing in the monument, and I spotted this water tank by one of the hills.

We put up tents in a leave-no-trace makeshift campsite and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The next morning it was time for some hiking.

We loaded up our packs and started heading up into the mountains. Note the lack of trails.

The number of fossils was amazing. This entire rock is covered.

We were also lucky to see some claret cup cacti blooming. They are so gorgeous!

Numerous holes dotted the cliffs. This one went in about ten feet, enough to get a fun view.

We kept hiking up and up and eventually made it to the top of the Golden Gate Range, the mountain range in the center of the monument. We found a survey marker and some assorted equipment that made us wonder what had been there previously.

To the west we saw Garden Valley and the Grant Quinn Range. It looked even more impressive the next morning with a fresh dusting of snow.

Here I am on the windy summit! It got so windy that day. My tent didn't do so well with all the wind.

We did some more hiking along steep slopes. Again, no trails. This place is wild!

Then we rappelled off the side of a mountain and into a cave.

It looked like we made the first footprints into the cave.

It didn't go far, but it had some nice speleothems.

The entrance was nice and wide and tall. It was fun being in a cave that didn't require crawling the entire time.

Some birds make their home there too.

I also saw some of the most amazing midden ooze that day, very orange. It looks soft, but it was actually very hard.

Later we were walking around some other cliffs and found this climbing rope dangling. It looks like climbers are putting up new routes (but I sure wouldn't leave my rope there, it wasn't that far back to the vehicles!).

It will be interesting to see how the monument is managed. They are currently working on a management plan.

A marker glued to the wall. Maybe this is the Scorpion King wall?

It is a gorgeous area. I really liked the cliffy mountains, abundant fossils, small caves, healthy sagebrush, numerous wildflowers, and isolation. We saw about eight vehicles all weekend. If you go, take supplies to stay overnight even if you're not planning to be there over night, as it's really remote and you may or may not run into someone else. Good tires, plenty of water, maps, and a good sense of direction are also helpful. I'll be back to explore!

Wildflowers and Burned Trees up Hampton Creek

 One Sunday we went up Hampton Creek in the North Snake Range for my husband to check on water. I suggested we look at wildflowers too. We used to go up Hampton Creek to look for garnets or to hike on the trail, but a huge wildfire and subsequent floods have washed out the road. We were (barely) able to cross the creek, but then soon had to stop, with the view above as we looked back into Snake Valley.

The wildflowers were out in abundance, including lots of milkvetch (Astragalus sp.).

Storm clouds were building to the west. We could see snow on the mountains, and it was obvious some runoff had started with the muddy stream water.

I liked this Cryptantha, nestled in its hairy leaves.

I find the burned trees very scenic. They will come back again. The stream bed has been altered a lot, widened many times its former size and greatly deepened. Hampton Creek used to look like just a small mountain creek and sported Bonneville cutthroat trout. Now it looks like a place you really need to avoid on rainy days in case of flash floods.

The spiders have certainly made their home there. We found many like this one, with a white round body that blends in with the gravel.  They moved quickly.


I liked this yellow flower. It had leaves like the Carrot family (Apiaceae) and a flower like the Pea family (Fabaceae). What could it be? I knew I had seen one before, but it took me awhile to find it in a flower book. It's in the Fumariaceae family, and the Flora for the area only has one species listed for the whole family, Corydalis aurea, Golden Corydalis, sometimes called Scrambled eggs. It is rare, found below 9,900 feet on spring moist soil, burns, along streams and in openings in brush. The leaves don't look quite right to me, so this may be a different species.

This beautiful purple flower is in the Mustard Family (Brassicaceae), its four petals giving a strong clue. It's one of the many Arabis. I really liked this view of it looking straight down.

We also saw some ladybird beetle. This one looks like it only has five spots, but we also saw some seven-spotted ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata), which have cover over from Europe and are very widespread.

This dainty yellow flower caught my eye. I don't know the name, I just know that it's pretty!

We tried walking up the road, but what wasn't washed away was heavily overgrown with willow, roses, and weeds (unfortunately some that should be treated or they will take over). This canyon has certainly gotten a lot more wild, and it will take some considerable effort to get up to the old garnet mine and trailhead.