My Backyard Trees

First off, what is a backyard?

For some people this is easy to define--it's the yard around their house. But what if you live in an apartment in the city on the twenty-eighth floor? If there's a nearby park, you can call that your backyard. Or your friend's yard out in the suburbs. Or the greater area. You can decide what to call your backyard for the Biodiversity Challenge.

So have you figured out what trees are in your yard? I was a little surprised when I listed mine: ash, elm, two different looking junipers, catalpa, apricot, peach, Lombardy poplar and white poplar. What surprised me? There are quite a few different species of ashes, elms, and junipers, and I'm not entirely sure what we have. I'm going to have to take a closer look.

That might not be the easiest right now, given that the trees have no leaves on them, but there are clues. Last year's leaves, the bark, the height, the shape, and more can be very helpful. Or I can just wait a few weeks!

Are the trees in your yard native? From a biodiversity standpoint, that's the best. Sadly, none of the trees in my yard are native. The only native trees around here at this elevation grow next to the creeks. If there isn't water, we don't have trees, we just have shrubs or grasses or other plants. I think it's very important to find out if species are native or not, so I encourage you as you make your list to put asterisks next to the species that are non-native.

Okay, I want to find out more about what's in your yard! Please leave a comment about the trees you find there, or what tree you would like to plant in your yard and why.

Picnic Lunch

After we had our walk last Sunday, we went into the nearby campground so we could have a picnic lunch complete with a fire. Desert Boy loves picnics, and Desert Girl loves sitting in the dirt and eating it and sticks and bark.

Oh, let's add pinecones to that list.

She has mastered the contemplative look.

Desert Boy was eager to help with the fire. No surprise there. It took awhile to cook the hamburgers, but they were worth the wait. It kept getting colder while we were there, so we appreciated the hot food.

Desert Boy had decided to bring his umbrella and then found where he wanted to set it up. He and Emma had their little picnic in the dirt.

Afterwards, Desert Boy had a lot of energy again, so I took him for a bike ride around the campground. Some of those hills were a little challenging, and I was expecting him to biff on one of the downhills, but he stayed upright.

As you can see, most of the aspen leaves are off the trees. They must have known that it was going to snow the next three days.

A Study of Aspen

Last Friday I took the kids camping, and the next morning we got up and went for a hike. It was a little chilly, so Desert Boy had to put on a hoody and was ready to walk fast.

The aspen have been beautiful this fall, although the color has been short-lived. The trees started turning the second week of September, and many leaves fell off this last week, the first week of October, as a storm system moved through.

Nevertheless, last Saturday morning we were still able to find a lot of beautiful aspens at middle elevations.

These are quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), so-named because they have flattened petioles that make them tremble in even the slightest breeze. The colorful leaves really stand out against the conifer background.

Desert Girl looked a little concerned as we began the walk, but she soon fell asleep.

The leaves are nearly circular, and a few dusted the ground.

When Desert Boy spotted a bridge, he got excited and ran across.

He ran so fast that he crashed on the other side.

I wouldn't mind having just a thimbleful of his exuberant energy.

(By the way, if you see typos that have the letter r missing, it's because Desert Girl got hold of the computer keyboard one morning. Despite repeated attempts to fix it, it's just not the same, with the letter r permanently handicapped.)

The sunlight danced across some of the leaves, illuminating their paper-thin wisps.

I liked this tree with its crooked trunk.

Aspen are fast-growing, but often don't live more than 100 or 150 years.

I noticed some elk scat near these aspen leaves. I was hoping we might see some elk or hear them bugle.

Unfortunately we didn't, but we did see some more elk sign: bark rubbed off the aspen.

This aspen leaf was nestled on the yellowing leaves of a snowberry bush.

Some of the leaves fell in the creek and were washed downstream. Cobbles slowed or stopped the movement of some of the leaves.

While most of the aspen leaves were yellow, some had orange or red tints to them. Since aspens are usually clones and are genetically exact to those around them, it's common for whole groves to turn the exact same color at the exact same time.

A problem aspen are facing is that fire suppression has allowed conifers to encroach on their habitat, crowding the aspen out of their old habitat. Trees can't exactly walk away, so if their neighbors take over, they're out of luck.

Oh my, those aspens were beautiful!

This one was particularly red.

We don't have many deciduous trees displaying fantastic fall colors, but we sure do appreciate the ones we have.

Happy autumn!

Kingsnake Survey

As I was going through my photos (noticing how I really need to name more of them), I found that I still have photos from May that I haven't uploaded. Seeing as we're almost in July, I figured I better get to it. These are from one of the last weekends in May, when we volunteered to help look for kingsnakes. The wildlife biologist at the park organized a volunteer week, but we just had part of a day to help. About 10 other volunteers showed up at the visitor center, and we had a little briefing and then drove up to the North Snake Range. I had to keep stopping to take photos of wildflowers, like the carpet of Douglas' Dustymaiden (Chaenactis douglasii) that made the valley bottoms and benches look covered with white polka dots.

The globemallow was also impressive, with splashes of orange lighting up the landscape.

We went up Hampton Creek, a scenic drainage with a stream running down it.

Here's another view of the Hampton Creek drainage. It might not look much different than the previous one, but the flowers are different! I really had flowers on the mind that day, plus it was a terrific time of year to enjoy them, before it got too hot.

While I started flipping rocks and looking into crevices to look for the kingsnakes, Desert Boy amused himself with his adventure pack, which included a magnifying glass for looking at things close up.

I enjoyed this close up view of a bumble bee. It was really beautiful. (Of course if it had stung me it wouldn't have been so beautiful, but since it left me alone we got along just fine.)

At one point we crossed the creek, which I wasn't able to photograph because it was fairly high water and I was wearing Emma and trying to swing Desert Boy across at the same time. I'm sure we were quite a sight! We didn't even get wet, so I'd say that was a success. Desert Boy had fun jumping across this little spring all on his own.

We had plenty of rocky areas to search, and Desert Boy started doing some rock climbing. He does very well on the climbing wall in our house, and he enjoyed practicing outside.

I stopped to look at what I think is some Selaginella watsonii, sort of similar to moss but not quite.

I also enjoyed the view out across the canyon. You can see that the aspens are just starting to get their leaves.

Meanwhile, Desert Boy had found something else to climb.

This was the fun part of the hike for him. He likes a good challenge. Wonder where he gets that from?

I got distracted by this dandelion that was growing out of a small pocket in the rock.

Desert Boy kept going up higher. (Grandparents: he is not really in any danger, it's just the angle of the photo that makes it look like he's really exposed.)
And Desert Boy made it off the rock just fine. We kept looking for kingsnakes, but all we saw were sagebrush and western fence lizards. Finally Desert Boy was totally worn out, so we headed back and found a convenient bridge to get back over the little creek.

I couldn't resist photographing this butterfly, which I still need to identify.

Now, I know, the title of this post probably had you thinking you were going to look at some kingsnakes. Only three were found during the survey, and I wasn't around to see any of them. However, in order not to be a total disappointment on the herpetological front, I have included some photos of a snake we saw in May on a different walk.

It was out on the road, and is a non-venemous snake that I call a racer. The correct name is actually striped whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus). They are known to move fast, but this one just stayed in one place while I walked all around it to take photos.

It has big round pupils and lifts its head to get a better look at me. Another characteristic are the white stripes on the dark body.

Finally I had taken enough photos and wandered off, leaving the snake to enjoy some more sunbathing.
The End.

Zion and More

The day after we went to Sand Hollow Reservoir, we decided to go see a part of Zion National Park we hadn't visited before and head up to Kolob Reservoir. On the way we made a little detour to allow for my wildflower obsession. The indigo bush was stunning.

I think the bush above is large four o'clock (Mirabilis multiflora), a perennial in the Four O'Clock Family.

Here are some beautiful sego lilies (Calochortus nuttalli).

And this is one of my absolute favorites, a member of the Buckwheat Family: desert trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum). Mother Nature had a sense of humor when she created this plant!
I like it so much, here's another view of it.

After our little wildflower extravaganza, we kept heading towards Zion and in the town of Virgin turned north at the sign pointing to Kolob Reservoir. This windy road goes through a couple sections of Zion National Park. Before we got into the park, the kids needed a food break, so we found a nice sandy area next to a small stream.

Then we proceeded up the road. This road can be quite scary in places, with hundred-plus foot dropoffs on either side. The reward is spectacular views.

Under the burnt orange cliffs are the burned trees and a small park entrance sign for the Kolobs Terrace section of the park. There aren't many attractions here, just a few trailheads, and further north a campground, picnic ground, and overlook. No entrance fee is charged to travel the road through this part of the park.

It looks like the vegetation in the burned area is coming back nicely, including the prickly pear cactus.

Every once in awhile there are surprise vistas from the road, like big green meadows. These meadows eventually drop off into the numerous canyons of the area.

Out at the Lava Point Overlook, the view is grand. With a bit of telephoto magic, one can feel very close to some of the famous Zion canyons.

The grey trees are mostly aspens that haven't yet leafed out. It was a bit chilly, and of course the wind was blowing. The campground was still closed and we saw patches of snow.

Nevertheless, we pushed on to Kolob Reservoir, a very popular trout fishing locale. At least it is during the summer, but even in the forty-degree weather we saw a number of people trying their luck.
We drove around the reservoir, admiring different views. The map showed a back way to Cedar City on gravel roads, but we weren't sure if it was passable with all the snow we saw on north-facing slopes. We asked some other people and they said that they had tried, but as soon as they went around a corner, a huge snowdrift blocked the way. So we'll have to go back again in the warmer months and give that a try. It would also be nice to get out of the vehicle more instead of staying huddled inside it to keep warm!

On our way back to Virgin, we found some cows being moved along the road. It didn't look like an easy job with all the traffic.

I guess if you train them early enough, though, they'll get the hang of it!