Looking for Lichens up Mount Washington

 I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to travel with Dr. Brad Kropp from Utah State University to look for lichens up Mount Washington. He's doing a lichen inventory for Great Basin National Park.

What are lichens? They are pioneering organisms that are a mix of fungi and algae. I always learned it as "Freddy Fungi took a Lichen (Likin') to Alice Algae." Lichens can grow in soil, on rocks, and in trees, and last year some researchers found about 50 different kinds at the top of Wheeler Peak. This year Dr. Kropp is looking all over the park. One of the target areas was the limestone substrate of Mount Washington.

The weather forecast was for 70% chance of thunderstorms, so we didn't think we'd get much time on top of the mountain. During the morning the clouds sped over us.


I learned some basics about lichens. They come in many sizes and shapes. Some only grow a millimeter or two a year, so they can be hundreds or even thousands of years old.


Color, shape, and location are clues to what species of lichen it is. Many, though, have to be examined under a microscope.


In the photo below are endolithic lichens. Endolithic means "in the rock." Most of the lichen is in the rock, and just a little is showing. How cool is that?


Dr. Kropp scraped off lichens to take back to the lab to examine. He noticed that there were a lot fewer species on Mt. Washington than on Wheeler Peak.


Speaking of the two mountains, in the foreground is the white limestone of Mt. Washington, and in the background is the Prospect Mountain quartzite of Wheeler Peak. Also in the foreground is Holmgren's buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgreni), a plant endemic to the Snake Range. It's not found on Wheeler Peak, but is found from Pyramid Peak south. The clouds sped past, but no thunderstorms emerged.

It was a fascinating day looking at lichens, and I realized how much I had overlooked them in the past. Most likely over a hundred species live in the park, and it's only over the last year that they've been given much attention.


Over the next months Dr. Kropp will identify the different lichens and then make a guide to them.

 If you'd like to learn more about lichens, here are two interesting websites:  Rocky Mountain NP page and Yosemite NP page .

Flash Flood Followup

 We drove past the site of the flash flood a few days later, and this is what we found: a puddle. No flowing water, and unless you are paying attention, you could easily miss that water had been running across the road and desert.

The ground still looked damp on the uphill side, but there weren't any puddles.

I scrambled down to take a look at the culvert. The four-foot diameter culvert was pretty much dry. It wasn't quite big enough for a few hours, but for the other 8760 hours of the year, it looks mostly like this.

Fortunately there was no damage to the road, so life in the desert continues with only a few realizing this sudden event even occurred.

Flash Flood on the Highway

As we were traveling home from a trip to the city, I noticed something looked strange on the highway far ahead, a light colored swath across the highway. What was it? It had to be water. We had seen some storm clouds, but the sky was currently only partly cloudy. A four-wheel drive truck flashed his lights at us when he passed, confirming there was something strange ahead. I slowed down, and soon we reached the water. I pulled over to take a closer look.

What we found was a culvert completely engulfed with water and a whirlpool. Further ahead, the water covered the highway. We could see that the water had been a little higher, so it was nice to know it was going down (and we weren't going to be washed away!).

The downstream side of the culvert showed a raging stream where usually there's no water at all.

 Usually I think of flash floods as being more in canyons, but we were many miles from canyons. Where it was nearly flat, a raging stream swept through the desert.

I wasn't sure how deep the water was on the highway in front of us, or if part of the highway had gotten washed away. We watched a semi slowly move through the water, and I was impressed with how high the water reached on the truck. I wasn't sure how our van would do, so I decided we would stay put a little longer.

Then we saw a pickup truck start going through at a slow speed. An SUV came roaring up to the water, the driver totally unaware that something unusual was going on. I watched her face as she showed surprise that there was water on the highway and slammed on the brakes. She was still going fast enough to make huge rooster tails as she plowed through the water.

We watched a driver from the other direction take it too fast, then decided we would follow a couple other cars.

The water was one to two inches deep, and I could feel the force of it pulling the van to the side of the road. We stayed in the middle of the road, the high spot, enjoying our slow progression through the water. Until some idiot from the other direction appeared, going way too fast and coating our van with muddy water. The kids heard an earful. And then repeated it.

Well, hopefully they learned a little about what to do and not to do in flash floods. Fortunately the highway didn't get washed away, but if you ever encounter water flowing over a highway, don't count on the highway necessarily still being intact! The power of water is immense, and we felt lucky to be able to see some of that.

Snake Valley Festival with Family

 We so much enjoyed having family here during the Snake Valley Festival! They went to so many events and even helped set up and move items. We enjoyed the community breakfast to start off the second day. (The first day was the ice cream social with music and the beer tasting and silent auction.)

The book sale was a hit with the schoolteacher!

Desert Boy put some money in the bag for his sister's road art project. It didn't end up winning (the amazing Mt. Wheeler bicycle wheel art won), but she helped raise some money for the Great Basin Water Network.

We had fewer parade entries this year. I'm not sure if it was because more kids than mine wanted to watch the parade than be in it. Desert Boy wanted more candy. But this wasn't an election year, and there was no candy! He has already said he wants to be in next year's parade. Fortunately we had a band, they fit in the back of a pickup.

And a few fire trucks.

And some horses! We love the horses and horse riders!

Later Desert Girl hooked up with some friends and convinced a papa to read a book she had bought at the book sale.

Then it was time for some games on the Baker Hall lawn.

And activities.

Desert Girl had a winning strategy for the kids' silent auction raffle. She bought tickets to put in bags for different items. She put most of her tickets in the bags that didn't have any other tickets and won a whole bunch of stuff. She didn't really care too much what it was, she just felt lucky. She enjoyed showing her friend Isaac the goodies.

Later we had a great water fight (didn't manage any photos of that but the kids and I were happily soaked from head to foot). Then we took a break to change and get ready for the evening. Desert Girl rehearsed for the talent show--a rendition of What does the fox say?

The BBQ dinner was delicious.

And then it was talent show time. Desert Girl needed a little coaching (I was teased for my impersonation of a pageant show mom), but Desert Boy had no qualms about being a weight-lifting joke teller.

Desert Boy and his friend Ava won the Junior Snake Valley competition.

We watched some amazing talents, such as eating a stick of butter, recycling water, tying maraschino cherry stems with a tongue, stepping through paper, and other things you would never even imagine. I did tree pose for a minute, with kids providing some wind to blow me over.

The crowd was duly entertained.

At the end of the night we had a Mr. Teen Snake Valley, Mr. and Ms. Snake Valley, Mr. and Ms. Junior Snake Valley, and Mr. and Ms. Senior Snake Valley. I'm sure they will all represent the valley well.

The next morning we got up for the Snake Valley Slither, a 5k race. Desert Boy ran it in his sandals, not very fast.

Spectators looked for shade, as it was hot even at 7 am.

Nevertheless, everyone who started finished, some even with big smiles!

Desert Boy rallied to run at the end.

Then we had a quick kids' race.

The little girls were adorable, and Desert Girl was so happy to get a medal. She had carefully picked out her running costume.

Even our little one-year old ran!

It was a great event, even though it was tiring, and we look forward to it again next year, the third weekend of June.

For more photos of the Snake Valley Festival, check out the Facebook page.

June Full Moon Hike

 Great Basin National Park holds full moon hikes during the summer, and we had never been so I took Desert Boy to the one in early June. We had to get tickets to attend the event, and we got the last one at about 2 in the afternoon. This is a popular hike!

As we drove up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, we were treated to some beautiful evening views.

The summit trailhead parking lot was full. Before long Ranger Steve started the program. It was colder than we thought it would be--30 degrees cooler than the valley bottom, hence all the coats you see in the photo. It was still rather light, but we would have a leisurely stroll to Stella Lake with stops--and no lights.

The aspens hadn't yet started budding out. At our stops we learned about various things. One of the coolest things was looking at the earth's shadow as our planet spun.

It's an interesting experience going on a hike with 40 other people.

Desert Boy had decked himself out with his junior ranger paraphernalia, and before long we were hanging out with the rangers at the end of the group. Steph graciously answered all sorts of Desert Boy's questions and kept him entertained.

It was fun seeing the moon appear over the horizon.

I kept stopping to take photos of it and switching lenses to try to capture it best for the Full Moon Challenge.

As we hiked, the appearance of the moon kept changing.

When we got to Stella Lake, the moon was hidden behind the ridge. But it gradually rose, lighting up the snow-covered slopes of Wheeler Peak.

And then the moon crested the ridge, reflecting in the lake.

It was a fun experience, and we'd love to go on more moonlit hikes without flashlights.

Have you ever been on a full moon hike? July has two full moons, July 1 and July 31.