A Mountain Stream

While we were out looking for wildflowers, Desert Boy noticed the wash led to the creek. I told him he couldn't jump in because he needed to keep his clothes dry. So when I finished photographing a flower and caught up with him, he had kicked off his boots and was tugging at his pants, saying, "Swimming, swimming."

I looked at Henry in the creek, saw the water was running clear and cool, and decided, why not? So I helped Desert Boy strip off all his clothes.

He hopped right in. The water is snowmelt coming off the mountain, so it's cold. 

Desert Boy even flinched a little at the temperature--a true rarity. But he didn't want to get out right away. He wanted to play.

After all, he needs to keep up with Henry, right?

Desert Boy thankfully realized that the deeper, swifter water really wasn't a good idea and stayed close to shore. I kept wondering if I was going to have to jump in and get my clothes wet.

Fortunately, after a few minutes of playing and climbing in and out of the creek, he decided he had had enough. His little legs were red, but he didn't care. He had a chance to go "swimming." I have a feeling we'll be playing in a lot of water this summer!

Searching for Snakes

Desert Boy and I joined a group searching for kingsnakes, along with other snakes and lizards a few days ago. We knew it wouldn't be easy, but we were ready.

Desert Boy started off trotting down the road. He found a puddle, and it was hard to convince him that we should go any further. But eventually we did.

The wildflowers were stunning. I was surprised to find four different penstemons. Above is thickleaf beardstongue (Penstemon pachyphyllus). Do you see the really hairy staminode (hairy thing sticking out of the middle of the flower)? That's one of the ways to help tell penstemons apart. First look at color, then if the stems are hairy or smooth, and then if the leaves, corollas (flower petals), and staminodes are hairy or smooth.

This penstemon has a smooth staminode. It's called Owens Valley beardstongue (Penstemon confusus). I really like the stripes on the inner parts of the petals.

The bright red of this penstemon sets it apart from the other ones we saw. It has the great name of firecracker penstemon (Penstemon eatonii).

And one more...Tunnel springs beardstongue (Penstemon concinnus). It was a lot shorter than the other ones and had hairy stem and leaves. 

Okay, I know we were supposed to be looking for snakes, but they were a bit elusive, while the wildflowers were so eye-catching. We did keep our eyes on the ground, though, and eventually we saw...

...a lizard! This is a sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus). Do you see the stripes running down his back?

Here is Meg searching up high on the hillside opposite us. People went up and down, looked under dead trees and in rock crevices. Everyone spread out to cover as much ground as possible.

Desert Boy got a bit worn out from all the traipsing up and down the hillsides. But with a snack, he was ready to go again.

We went up to some rocks and found large clusters of Kingcup cactus (Echinocerus triglochidiatus). To my utter amazement, Desert Boy walked through them with nary a fall and a spine in his hand.

On the way back down, we saw a different lizard. This one doesn't have stripes lengthwise like the sagebrush lizard, but instead has stripes going across his body. This is a western fence lizard (Sceloperus occidentalis). 

When we got down the hillside, we reached a little spring, and water was running across the road. You can imagine Desert Boy's delight.

He was in the water faster than I could say "No," which is pretty darned fast.

The only problem was that while I was photographing wildflowers, he somehow managed to find a muddy spot and fall down in it.

And before I knew it, he was in an even bigger mud hole and was scrambling to get out of it. 

By this time I knew he was completely coated with mud, and it didn't matter if he got any dirtier.

Oops. Might as well get entirely coated with mud. He wasn't too happy when I told him we had to start heading back to the truck, about a mile away. And he was going to have to walk the entire time because I didn't want to pick him and all his mud up.

Fortunately, we came across some snake hunters who had better success.

They had caught a night snake (Hypsiglena torquata) and put it in the smaller plastic container, and a Great Basin rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis lutosis). The rattlesnake rattled incessantly, so we put him back and took a closer look at the night snake.

And we thought we might get even a little closer...

The biologist is showing the snake to Desert Boy and explaining how to handle him.

Desert Boy reaches over to touch.

And then decides he can probably hold the little snake all by himself.

He didn't talk while he handled it, just watched in fascination.

The snake may be wondering what all the mud is about. It typically hangs out in drier areas.

So even though we didn't find any snakes ourselves, we felt pretty lucky to get to see a couple close up that others caught. 

The New Playground

Desert Boy and a Tractor

When we went down to the ranch shop the other day, we saw this huge MacDon M200 tractor, and Desert Boy got very excited. He hasn't done too much scampering onto tractors lately.

He figured a way to climb up, irrigating boots and all. It might not look too elegant, but it worked. It's true that when there's a will, there's a way, especially for a headstrong two-year old who knows no limits.

The only problem is that he can't quite open the door by himself.

Once the door is open, he knows just what to do--get in the seat, put a hand on the steering wheel, and turn the key. Yikes! I had to jump in and turn the key back the other direction.

He manages to look all angelic while he's doing this. He was quite disappointed when I told him we weren't actually going to drive the tractor.

Here's a view of the tractor from the front. Yikes, it sure is big! Some of the alfalfa is mature and ready for the first cutting, so Desert Boy may soon get a chance to ride in a moving tractor.

Hanging out with Micki

The other day we went up and visited Micki, who absolutely adores Desert Boy. She taught him some dancing moves and showed him how to snap his fingers. He thought that was pretty cool and imitated as best he could.

He's a good sport. Plus Micki has some fun toys, and he knows exactly where they are kept and makes a beeline for them as soon as we go inside. And outside she has a swing, which he also remembers and mentions anytime I say Micki's name.

But I'd say Micki totally won over Desert Boy when she let him make a real phone call and talk on the phone. He's already practicing for his teenage years. 

Desert Destination: Ibex Hardpan

Located adjacent to the Ibex Crags is the Ibex Hardpan, also called the Tule Valley Hardpan. This is a dry lakebed (well, most of the time), suitable for events such as golf practice, observing the dark night sky, setting land-speed records, doing wheelies, plane fly-ins, and biking.

I took the above photo biking no-hands and not worrying where I was going. It's really fun to bike on a hardpan. 

We wanted to explore some parts of this hardpan, and a bike is a perfect way to do it without expending too much energy yet going slow enough to enjoy the scenery.

We also found a dirt road going up aways from the hardpan and took it for a bit.

We saw some more neat rock formations. But then it was time to go back to the hardpan.

Because we were in search of something unexpected...

...like water! Someone had used bulldozers to dig shallow pits on the lakebed, where the water gathered and cattle and wildlife could come and drink it. As soon as we found it, Desert Boy wanted to play in it. So we took off his shoes and pants and let him go at it.

It was slimy, with a high clay content. But that didn't stop him.

He wandered in and out of the puddles, miraculously not falling down. I say miraculous because we didn't have any extra diapers with us.

But then the cracked surface of the hardpan called to Desert Boy. The texture is fascinating, and it seems to go on almost endlessly.

He ran away from us before we had a chance to take off his helmet. We let him run as far as he wanted (after all, we had bikes and could catch up even if he decided to run forever).

Sometimes it almost looked like he was walking on air.

We also decided that the reason that aliens all seem to look like squat little beings with big green heads is that the first artist saw little toddlers running around with their green bike helmets on and didn't know what to make of them.

If you want to see what a little bobble head flapping his arms looks like, take a look at the video below. There's no soundtrack to it, so turn up your favorite music--or listen to how quiet it is out on the desert.