Magic Steve at the 2017 Sheepherders' Gathering

Every year in January, sheepherders and aficionados of the sheep industry gather on the Nevada-Utah line at the Border Inn to celebrate at the Sheepherders' Gathering. A musician (or two or three) are invited. This year, Magic Steve from the Salida Circus came and brought his banjo. Before the gathering even started, he went to the local school and entertained the kids, teaching them a little more about music. 

The kids enjoyed it a lot. So did the adults!

Then he said that since his name was Magic Steve, he better do some magic tricks. The first volunteer helper did great.

And Magic Steve obviously enjoyed interacting with him!

More helpers were needed in the make-the-pink-hankie-disappear-and-then-reappear-in-his-taped-mouth trick.

Desert Girl got called up to be a helper, which she certainly enjoyed because she's been doing her own magic tricks at home. She needs a bit more practice to master the sleight of hand that Magic Steve uses. His tricks seemed to go off effortlessly.

It was a very entertaining hour, and I'm glad I got to go, especially since I was sick the rest of the weekend so missed all the other events. But if you do a search on this blog for "Sheepherders," you'll find more about this unique annual gathering.

Christmas Eve Nativity Play

 One of our Christmas traditions when we're in town is to go to a neighboring community and attend the Christmas Eve Nativity Play. Children are the actors, and our kids have participated several years. This year we were wondering if little Lily would be willing to be one of the sheep. You can see what she thinks about that!

Desert Boy was cast as Gabriel and Desert Girl as Mary. They started the play with quite a few lines.

They both did well. They really like the costumes!

Usually the play has more younger kids, but there weren't enough in town, so some of the older kids were gracious enough to fill in.

The role of the guard is always a favorite, with "Hark ye, hark ye" as the opening words. You can hear the kids pretending they're the guard before the play and saying those words!

The play has several songs, so the kids learn the basic Christmas carols.

Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus in the stable. Mary got a little lesson on how to pick up baby Jesus so she wouldn't cause him whiplash.

The angels head out to shepherd hill to make their proclamation about the newborn King.

Then the three wise men go and visit King Herod. He is obviously thrilled with the visit. The guard thinks it's pretty cool to hang out, too. Even the angels on their heavenly cloud are amused.

The three wise men then visit the newborn King.

Angel Gabriel tells Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt. Joseph made sure none of the gifts were left behind. It was quite cute.

The king and guard hang out at the palace until King Herod dies. These two are both kindergarteners and were so fun to watch!

Then at the end is a rousing rendition of Joy to the World. And in twenty minutes, it's a wrap!

Mary is ready to hold on to baby Jesus and do the final bow holding hands with the actors next to her. (Mom taught her that move!)

Next it was time to change out of costumes and participate in a beautiful candlelight service. I thought Desert Boy would resist going, but he said he found the service relaxing. A dessert potluck followed, so that was extra incentive to stay!

The whole evening really put us in the Christmas spirit.

A Quick Trip to the Magic Grove near Mount Washington

 We had some visiting ecologists who were interested in setting up a limber and bristlecone pine monitoring program in Great Basin National Park. Since I do a lot of the high elevation botany/ecology, I went with them on a recon trip to one of the potential sites, up in the Mt. Washington area. I love going up the west side of the park, it is always so remote and beautiful. I took all these photos with my phone.

Jules joined us and brought along the telemetry gear to try and hear the collared bighorn ewe. We didn't hear it from down in Spring Valley, but we did hear it later in the day.

The traditional first stop up the road is the Wheeler Mine, where water comes out of the old mine and we can still see some of the mining structures. I'm not quite sure what this structure was used for.

Then we drove up the tight switchbacks up to near the top of Mt. Washington. We hiked the last 150 meters into the clouds.

Then we went down the other side to the northeast to check out a grove of bristlecones that has been dubbed the Magic Grove. The name isn't on any map, but it's stuck locally.

The moving clouds lent a very different air (double pun intended!) to the grove.

Wildflowers were scarce, but we could see there remains, like this Silene acaulis. In the summer it has brilliant pink flowers.

I found this four-trunked tree interesting.

Recognize this tree? It's on the Great Basin National Park quarter. It's a very cool looking tree from every angle.

The clouds were moving so fast. Thunderstorms were predicted for later in the day, so we knew we couldn't stay too long.

One of the cool things about bristlecones (and there are a lot of cool things!) is that often times the tree roots are above ground. These roots are so old that the ground has eroded out from around them, leaving the roots in air. This is an example where the biology can be used to help date the geology.

The bristlecones had some cones on them, so the life cycle continues. Those bottlebrush needles can live for 40 years!

On the way back down, the clouds lifted enough that we could see the marvelous patch of aspen on the other side of the canyon. A wildfire in 2000 burned part of Lincoln Canyon, making some great bighorn sheep habitat and regenerating a lot of aspen.

 It was a quick trip up and down the mountain, but lots of fun with good conversation about forest ecology and field work. The clouds made everything look so different. The Mt. Washington road requires high clearance  and four wheel drive and is one of the toughest roads around. The super tight switchbacks require three-point turns for longer vehicles.

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!