Mountain Home Range-Part Three

After our fun insect-collecting and relaxing stop, we headed even higher up the mountain range. The road was a faint two-track in pretty good condition.

We saw these neat cliffs behind beautiful lupine, and I couldn't resist stopping. The nieces and nephews were up to the challenge of climbing up the cliffs.

Grace and Alyshia looked for handholds

We made it to the top and the view was great. There's nothing like being up high in the mountains in the cool air and looking at the hot desert floor down below you.

Desert Boy also made the journey up the cliffs. He loves to climb, but flowers can get boring quickly.

When it was time to go down, we found a less steep way, and Kayli joined us. Desert Boy was delighted.

Some parts were steep enough he had to sit down.

And Henry was glad to meet up with us, for he hadn't been able to scale the cliffs.

We heard some noise from the cliffs and found Alyshia and Ruby chunking huge rocks over the edge. They bounced spectacularly.

Then it was time to go to the end of the road. A deer crossed our path. We had noticed much more elk scat than deer, but we didn't see any elk.

Chris walked out to the edge to enjoy the view of the valley on the other side.

Ed enjoyed the company of some old bristlecones.

None of the bristlecones were super old (more than 3,000 years), but there were several that could easily have been more than a thousand years old.

It just boggles my mind thinking about something living that long, and all the different conditions it must have experienced over its lifetime.

The bristlecones were patchy, not a very large grove.

The kids had elected to stay near the vehicles and play in the shade of the bristlecones rather than hike up to the top with the adults. They were quite creative in their games.

Then it was time to head down. We crossed the mountain range and came home via another valley. It was so much hotter down low! So when we got to the lake, we couldn't resist and jumped in, with our clothes on.

It felt great, and we didn't really want to leave, but we still had things to do.

Lola and Caleb had switched vehicles, and both Desert Boy and Desert Girl were delighted to have their cousins nearby.

What else did we have to do on this long day? Why, shuttle tractors, of course! Tom was going to make the most of having a big crew. My brother Ed volunteered to drive one of the tractors.

Tom explained to him how to drive the old tractor. "It has no brakes, so if you need to stop, just shift down."

"The front tire is bad, but I don't think it will blow out."

"You can't really tell what gear you're in, so just try moving it around and you'll eventually get something that works."

Or something to that effect. Ed was grinning, wondering what he had gotten himself into. But he was up for a little adventure, especially one that he would never have back in D.C.

So after a little false start, he got it into some kind of gear and took off down the road.

Meanwhile Chris was showing Grace how to drive another tractor. Grace is learning to drive so was eager to be behind the wheel of some big farm equipment.

And they're off!

Alyshia and Ruby took another tractor, but my camera battery had died so I didn't get any photos of them.

But Ed managed to take a photo as he was driving down the road.

Yeehaw, good times!

Mountain Home Range-Part Two

Every good adventure needs some good food, so as it was approaching lunch time we found a good picnic spot and unloaded the coolers so everyone could browse and fix what they wanted for lunch.

The spot we stopped at was a little cabin fairly high up in the mountains. There was no sign at it, but I think it's on private land. Like most isolated cabins, it was unlocked so people wouldn't break in. The inside was relatively clean and simple, although like all cabins, had a fair number of mouse droppings. With hanta virus, I don't know if I would be willing to take the chance of sleeping inside, but probably a good cleaning would help. This area gets used a lot in the fall by hunters. Whoever owns this, thanks for the use of your picnic table!
Desert Girl shows more and more interest in food, and her uncle was willing to oblige her. At first she looks a little concerned about mouthing some chocolate cookie.
But then I think she decided she really wanted more!
We continued up higher, finally leaving the pinyon and juniper and getting into some higher sagebrush. The views kept improving as we could see more and more of the Great Basin and distant snow-covered ranges.
We took a spur road and ended up on a ridge. It was time to stop to not only enjoy the views and stretch our legs, but also to go insect hunting.
Everyone enjoyed the beautiful rest stop, even the three dogs with us.
One vista.
Lola was particularly good at catching grasshoppers. She was really fast and could track them down and capture them quickly.
Once a grasshopper had been captured, it was transferred to the bug cage.

Then it was time to show it off. Ed takes a look and does the appropriate oohi
ng and ahhing.
Then it was Grandma Sylvia's turn.

The bigger kids entertained themselves for awhile with the Matthew game, which consisted of swinging him in the air. You can see that he is really enjoying this game. He didn't want them to stop.

But eventually it was time for the Matthew tossing game! He liked that a lot, too! And I was thankful that his cousins had so much energy.

To be continued...

Mountain Home Range-Part One

So the day after Fourth of July we decided to go on a big adventure up into the mountains. Instead of going to one of the more popular alpine areas, we decided to go exploring in a mountain range that's basically in the middle of nowhere. That would be more adventurous, right?
Our first stop was this big water tank. Water is obviously important in the desert, so we often stop to take a peek at water! Even if it involves climbing up a ladder.
Here's the view at the top. My brother Ed took this photo (and all the other photos that don't have the Desert Survivor watermark), which makes it look like a wonderful swimming pool. It's quite deep, and it's algae giving such a green color to the water. It was chilly, fed by a spring further up a canyon.

We could see corrals off in the distance, so off we went for our first hike.

They were sheep corrals, and the kids soon got into the swing of things, pretending to be sheep. Baaa. I like how Megan convinced Caleb to give her a ride.

Then it was time to go up to higher country. The map showed a couple routes up there, and we decided to take the road less traveled, the one that was more direct. The road got rougher and rougher...the canyon got narrower and narrower....

...and finally we reached a spot that was too rough for the second of our caravan of vehicles to make it.
The old Suburban I was driving made it! Ha, ha. Actually the joke was on us, because the air conditioning wasn't working and it was a rather warm day. (Ed actually took a few of these photos with my camera. I haven't figured out how to drive and photograph myself doing that at the same time!)

This neat little arch was hiding up in the rocks. We went back down the canyon and found a much better road to go up higher.

All the older kids wanted to have air conditioning, so the younger kids were with Ed and me. Or maybe they just liked our fun-loving attitude? Actually, I think Desert Boy and Desert Girl were the main attraction. They both love to have their cousins' attention.

To keep the ride interesting as we went through miles and miles of rolling road surrounded by rather monotonous pinyon and juniper, we played that we were on a roller coaster. Desert Boy quickly caught on to the game and decided that he was going to be the loudest screamer. You can see (and hear) for yourself:


To be continued...

Cheesy Smiles

The kids and I went on a little hike the other day, and they were cooperative enough to pose during one of our many snack breaks. I figured what were the chances that they would both have their eyes closed and a cheesy smile?
I wandered around for a couple minutes taking photos of flowers, and when I got back to Desert Girl, she was stuffing a fistful of dirt and grass in her mouth. Apparently it tasted good. Desert Boy was eating chips and oblivious to everything else in the world.