Fall Colors and Goofy Kids

Two weekends ago, the kids and I went for a quick trip up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park. We stopped at Mather Overlook to enjoy the views, and the kids were instantly drawn to the telescopes, although they had to get creative to get high enough to look through them.

 We could see a sprinkling of color on the mountain as the quaking aspens started turned yellow.

 The kids weren't so interested in the views. They were ready to play. And Desert Boy's cowboy hat provided the entertainment they needed.

 Desert Girl wanted to give it a try.

 Oh, goodness. Can you tell that Desert Girl enjoys having her photo taken?

 Sorry for the kid photo overload, but I just couldn't resist with their expressions.

 It's so nice to go hiking with them when they're in a good mood!

Next we drove to the end of the road. I let the kids choose which trail they wanted to see, and they chose the quarter-mile Island Forest Trail. Despite being the shortest trail, it still took us about an hour!

 Our slow progress was the result of looking closely at lots of things, like the Engelmann spruce pine cones.

 And taking time out to pose by some aspens. With our tongues out.

 And lie on the ground.

 I tried taking some artistic shots from interesting angles, but really didn't do that well. This is one of the better photos.

 The goofy kids kept coming up with new games. (If you're wondering about the red bag, it's what Desert Boy decided to carry instead of a backpack. I don't think it had much useful in it, but he carried it the whole way, so I didn't care.)

 Then a big cloud came overhead and released some sleet. That provided a bit of excitement.

 A few minutes later, the sun was out, highlighting the golden aspens.

The colors along the Scenic Drive seemed more muted this year. In my next post, I'll show what they looked like a week later (this past weekend).

Where do you like to go to look at fall colors?

Fish Monitoring at Gandy Salt Marsh

 A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to help Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) with least chub (Iotichthys phlegethontis) monitoring at Gandy Salt Marsh in the West Desert of Utah. Least chub are tiny fish that only live in a handful of places, remnants from Lake Bonneville days that now are clinging to existence. They favor small springs that are difficult to reach.

As we headed to the site, I couldn't help but notice the numerous bushes with white flowers. It took me a little while to realize that they are white rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus albidus). It was kind of neat to see something so familiar looking but with a twist. 

 Here are the flowers closeup.

I also photographed many, many more plants, but will spare you on this post, and get back to the main subject.

 My friend Kevin was leading the trip, and when we reached this spring to put in minnow traps, he had to do some deep thinking. Fences have been installed to prevent cattle from falling into the springs, which can be deceptively shallow-looking. Many a cow have taken the plunge, never to exit. The fences are good for keeping the cows out, but they were supposed to be removed for the sampling. Since they weren't, we had to find a work-around.

 Installing the traps involved some gymnastics and barbed-wire avoidance skills. Life as a biologist is interesting!

 While we were putting in traps, we saw lots of frogs, including Columbia spotted frogs (above) and northern leopard frogs (below).

 In the spring, egg mass surveys are done in this area, and it can be really difficult to find any adults. It's neat to see them.

 Some of the springs have slurping mud bottoms that feel a little like quicksand (or what I imagine quicksand would feel like, since I've never actually been in real quicksand). I sort of ended up in the mud, because somehow mud and I have a long and complex relationship. Like maybe I still want to be like Desert Girl and jump in mud puddles but now just get sucked into mud holes and muddy caves. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant experience, but it was nice to rinse off later in the day!

 After we installed all the minnow traps, it was time for some physical habitat surveys. We divided up into groups, as we not only had UDWR folks, but also people from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Southern Nevada Water Authority. We went in different directions. My group's direction took us here:

 The water levels are definitely lower in the fall, restricting the fish to the deepest springs. During the spring, after snow melt, the large playa fills with water and is an import migratory stop for birds. In the fall, it makes for fast walking.

 After the physical habitat surveys and lunch, it was time to go check the minnow traps. Many were empty, but a few had lots of fish, and not always in places where we thought we'd find a lot.

 Every fish was counted and measured before being returned to its spring.

We found speckled dace, Utah chub (on the left, above), and least chub (on the right, above).

It was a good day, and I really enjoyed the company and interesting terrain. Hopefully the least chub will continue to do well in their very specialized habitat.

p.s. You can find out lots more about the Gandy area in Chapter 11 of my book.

Destination: Angel Lake near Wells, Nevada

 One of Nevada's many mountain ranges is the East Humboldt Range, a 30-mile long range in the northeastern part of the state near Wells, Nevada. We decided to make it part of our July trip, largely because the 12-mile Angel Lake Scenic Byway (Nevada Highway 231, seasonally open) goes right up to Angel Lake in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

 The stormy weather didn't deter us as we climbed several thousand feet from the valley to the 8,379-foot elevation lake. Before the road gets really steep and windy is the Angel Creek Campground, which would be a good destination for those with bigger vehicles (like RVs). The Angel Lake Campground awaits those with smaller vehicles at the end of the road. There's a $5 parking fee at the end of the road for those who want to get out of their vehicles and check out the lake and/or picnic.

Lake Dimensions. The road takes you to within fifty feet of Angel Lake, named for Warren M. Angel of nearby Clover Valley. The lake covers 13 acres with a maximum depth of about 35 feet. A dam was added to the lake by early settlers to increase its capacity for irrigation.

Fish. The lake contains brook trout, rainbow trout, tiger trout, and speckled dace. According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife website about Angel Lake, about 4,800 rainbow trout are stocked during the summer. Creel surveys show anglers catch about 1 to 2 trout per hour, with a limit of five per day. Fish size is generally 8.5 to 11 inches.

My husband and kids decided to try their luck fishing, which is one of the most popular activities at the lake. I was ready to stretch my legs after the long car ride and set out for a hike around the lake.

Glaciology. Angel Lake is a tarn, otherwise known as a mountain lake formed in a cirque. A glacier once stood hundreds of feet high here, flowing down towards the valley below. (On the day we visited, the sky was hazy and the storms made it gray, so it was hard to see down to the desert below.)

One of the coolest things about visiting Angel Lake was thinking about the glaciers. The last glaciation in the Great Basin was called the Angel Lake glaciation, with the type locality being right where we were standing. Researchers Ben Laabs, Jeff Munroe, and others have conducted cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface-exposure dating of boulders in the area. By studying the dates of how long boulders in moraines have been exposed, they've concluded that the end of the Angel Lake glaciation was 19,300 years ago, give or take 1,000 years. This was the same time that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was retreating. This was also before glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and Wasatch mountains retreated, and before the huge pleistocene Lakes Bonneville and Lahontan had reached their zenith. What does this timing mean? The researchers say that more research is needed.

Wildflowers. What comes after the glaciers leave? Pioneering plants like the bright fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium),  one of my favorite flowers. Fireweed likes to grow in areas that have been disturbed by  fires, avalanches, glacial retreats, and more. It likes lots of sun and can grow quickly.

Many other wildflowers were in abundance. The flora in the East Humboldts and nearby Ruby Mountains are similar to that in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.

 And with plants come animals, like this beautiful blue butterfly.

 Wildlife. A couple rock wrens hung out with me as I took photos.

Probably the best-known birds on the mountain range are introduced Himalayan Snowcocks. They apparently are most-often found around Hole-in-the-Mountain peak, the highest peak of the range at 11,306 ft. The range also has bighorn sheep (with 20 reintroduced in February 2013), introduced mountain goats, mountain lions, mule deer, bobcat, coyote, and more.

Lakes and Hiking. Although Angel Lake is the most easily accessed lake in the East Humboldts, it's not the only lake. I was a bit surprised to find that the range has many more lakes, including Smith Lake, Greys Lake, Winchell Lake, Boulder Lakes, Lizzie's Basin, and Steele Lake. You can access some of them on the two main hiking trails: a four-mile hike to Winchell Lake that begins at a trailhead below Angel Lake on the paved road; and a 25-mile hike that begins at Angel Lake, goes around the north end of the range to Greys Lake 5 miles away on the west side, and then continues along the west side to Ackler Creek (11 miles) and Boulder Lake (18 miles).

To find out more about hiking to some of the other lakes, check out the details on this informative website about hiking in East Humboldts (and Rubies).

As often happens in the mountains, the storms passed and the sun came out, brightening the carpet of wildflowers. I was particularly impressed by the display of wildflowers, even though we were just at 8300 feet. The latitude and higher precipitation allows for a lower timberline and overall lower elevation for wildflowers that I expected to see at higher elevations.

Wilderness.  A quick note on wilderness: although you can drive to Angel Lake, most of the rest of the East Humboldt Range is accessible only by foot or horseback. In 1989, 36,000 acres were designated as the East Humboldt Wilderness.

Geology. The mountains rising above Angel Lake look beautiful, with Greys Peak at the top of the photo above at 10, 674 ft. The East Humboldt Range is a metamorphic core complex, meaning that the older rocks have been pushed up and are exposed instead of being overlain by younger rock layers. This allows you to look up from Angel Lake and see some of the oldest rocks in Nevada: 2.5 billion year old gneiss. How cool is that to see rocks so old from a lake that is not so old (at least geologically speaking!).

Lake core. The sun also beckoned an angler to go out in his float tube. That would be a really fun way to visit the lake! Researchers have taken a raft out on the lake to retrieve a sample of the bottom (a sediment core) to study the past climate of the area over the last 7,000 years. They were able to see ash from the Mount Mazama explosion (the one that created Crater Lake in Oregon). They also learned quite a bit more, which you can read about here.

 When I got back to the dam (probably a leisurely 45-60 minutes after I had set out around the lake), I found the angling success wasn't so good for my family.

 But the kids sure did have fun getting in the chilly water!

I'd like to go back to Angel Lake and the East Humboldts and check out more of the beautiful scenery.

 And if we time it right, we may make it again for the drag races in Wells.

Ah, you've got to love the desert!

I couldn't find much information about Angel Lake when we set out to go there. Hopefully this compilation will help those who desire to know more. And if you know of other websites about Angel Lake, please leave a comment! Thanks!

Eating My Way up Right Fork Canyon, Ruby Mountains, Nevada

 Back in July (it sounds so long ago now!) we took a family trip to the Ruby Mountains near Elko, Nevada for some camping and mountain country. The Ruby Mountains receive the most precipitation of all the interior Great Basin ranges, about 40 inches a year at the higher elevations. That's quite a change from the six to seven inches we get on our desert ranch!

I'm a little behind blogging about the trip, but am finally getting to it. I'm going to start with the last day first--I got up and went for an early morning trail run. Of course I had managed to forget my running shoes, but I had some trusty sandals. I put some bandaids in my pocket (it's not the first time I've forgotten my running shoes, and I didn't want to get a blister!), and grabbed my camera and a water bottle. Then I was off.

The trail for the Right Fork Canyon (a tributary to the majestic Lamoille Canyon) starts at a cattleguard and sign by what is now called the Lions Camp (previously Boy Scout Camp and Lamoille Camp). I followed the road to its end, passing a lodge with the smell of bacon coming out of it, some tents, and some cabins. Then I followed a little marked trail to the edge of a slow-moving creek due to the presence of some beaver dams.

The trail was narrow but easily followable, and I made good time. It had rained the night before and some parts were quite muddy, and the vegetation was damp. I was glad I had on running shorts. Before long, the trail entered thicker brush. It was still easy to follow, but I got wetter.

I wasn't sure how far I was going to go, but planned a turnaround time in about 30 minutes. I figured that would give me enough time to see some of the canyon, but not too long to leave my family.

As I was closing in on that 30 minutes, I came out of the brush onto some wonderful rock. Hurray! The canyon beckoned me ahead. I so much wanted to see what else was up there. I decided to go just five minutes more.

 Except the trail got really narrow and eventually disappeared in an aspen grove! I didn't have the time to thoroughly scout it out, so I decided that was a good sign that it was time to turn around. And once I got back out to the big, flat rock place, I again had to stop to take some photos.

 I wandered over to the stream to look at a little waterfall. Then I decided I had better get going, so I took off running fast across the rock, and the next thing I knew I had landed hard on my side and ankle. Dang it. After a quick assessment I decided I was okay to continue. I was bleeding and bruised, but I could still move. Plus, I hadn't seen anyone else on the trail and I didn't know how I would get word to anyone if I was injured. (Note to self: maybe it would be a good idea to carry matches for a trail run in order to make a signal and/or warming fire if needed.) I wasn't all that far up the canyon and in fact could see the camp buildings, but I knew no one could see me.

So I gingerly started making my way back down the trail. And that's when I saw something that made me forget all my aches and pains:

 Thimbleberries! On the way up I had only seen the white ones, but on the way down I found luscious red ones, ripe and wonderful. They are related to raspberries, but even larger and sweeter.

 Then I saw what looked like blueberries. These aren't the sweet kind found in the Midwest and Alaska (and I'm sure other locales), this is a western version that grows on alkaline soil called Serviceberry. I picked some and ate them. They aren't very sweet, but they're okay.

 I saw these white berries, but they looked suspicious, and I wasn't sure what they were, so I didn't touch them.

 I also saw these alluring red berries, but they're baneberry and very poisonous. You really do need to know your berries before you eat them or you could be in a lot of trouble!

Not all red berries are bad. These currants were prime for the picking and delicious! I spent so much time eating my way back down the trail that my downhill return trip was only one minute faster than my uphill jog. It was worth it though, and I look forward to returning again. If you'd like to eat your way along the trail, late July is an ideal time.