The Fishing Hole

Last weekend we had a couple hours free and decided to go to our secret fishing hole.

Top secret.

So secret that if I told you.....well, you know the rest!

It was a good spot.

Here's a rainbow he caught. Not too big, but if we had kept everything, we would have had a nice little meal. Desert Boy wants to do that, have a little fish fry picnic. I do, too, as long as I don't have to cook!

My husband takes the hook out of the fish.

And promptly lands another one, the second of two rainbow. Earlier he caught a big brown.

Desert Boy was a little squeamish around the fish, but we made him touch it anyway.

Maybe it was his dad telling him he would teach him out to eat fish eyeballs.

Ew.

Here you can see Desert Boy's expression a little better.

I used to think fishing was extremely boring and wasn't at all interested in it.

Now I still agree that it's usually boring, but I find that I don't mind some down time. I really don't have to be running evey minute.

Desert Girl was along for the adventure, but she mainly just sat and ate dirt.

It was a good way to spend a couple hours.

Hope you can find your own top secret fishing hole!

Mammoth Cave Lava Tube

Last weekend there was a campout for Utah grottoes (caving clubs), and it wasn't too far away, so we decided to go. We all managed to catch a cold and didn't think that camping out at 9,500 feet would be that much fun (with nights getting to about 28 F), but fortunately we were able to rent a cabin nearby. We met the other cavers in the morning and decided that we were going to do a couple easy caves with the kids.

Our first stop was Mammoth Cave, which had multiple signs pointing it out.

At the parking area there was even a pit toilet and kiosk with information.

Mammoth Cave lava tube has nearly half-mile of passages that are in four main tunnels.

We descended down the main entrance.

Desert Boy was very excited to go caving. He had been talking about it for a couple of days. We don't let him go too often so that it's a special treat to go.

We decided to go in the mostly walking section of the lava tube, but to get into it, we had to crawl through the gate. That was a little challenging while wearing Emma in a sling, but doable.

The gate is to protect hibernating bats during the winter. During the summer, the gate is open for folks to go exploring.

Before long, Emma went with Daddy. I was busy looking for cave invertebrates to help the Forest Service, and Emma didn't like me bending over so much.

Desert Boy was a great size to go exploring all the little alcoves. I'm always surprised when I go in lava tubes how many irregular nooks and crannies they can have. In my mind I always imagine lava just flowing straight and regular, but the reality is that it can be very curvy and irregular. We really realized that when we found out that the passage had curved and we ended up going nearly under where we parked.

Kent, a caver from Utah, came with us. He has six kids and many grandkids, so he had no problem hanging out with us.

Desert Boy was happy that we kept moving. He loves having little challenges like climbs.

Meanwhile, I kept checking for cave critters, finding some flies and mites. The little white mites were probably the most common biota in that tunnel.

Here's the closeup. Ha, not very close, is it? They were tiny, only about 2-3 mm long.

The ceiling got lower as we went further back in the tunnel. My husband didn't really want to retrace our steps over all the slippery rocks. He looks a bit worried, doesn't he?

Fortunately there was another way out, and although it was small, we all made it (even with Emma attached).

Here's a view from the outside, with caver Peter exiting. He was with another group that had joined with ours at the end of the tunnel.

We took a little break, and then Desert Boy, Kent, and I decided to go into another tunnel.

Kent and I went in first and watched Desert Boy climb into the cave.

Climbing over the big boulders wasn't the easiest for him.

But he's certainly the right height for easy movement in the cave!

This tunnel had some fun creatures, including this orange centipede.

Cave crickets were abundant. We counted 21, and we weren't even looking that hard.

The cave crickets were all over the floor, walls, and even ceiling. There's one in a pocket above Desert Boy's head.

This tunnel was like the others, squeezing down into a smaller and smaller size, but it also had an exit at the end.

It was a really fun lava tube, and we'll be back some day to explore the other tunnels. We also enjoyed watching the array of folks coming to the cave. It's a huge attraction, due to the signs and many ATV trails in the area. We didn't see anyone else besides our caver group have helmets, and most folks only had one or two lights per group. We even saw some people take their little poodle down into the cave entrance. The Forest Service has a real opportunity to do some outreach about caving safely and cave conservation.

Although we had finished at Mammoth Cave lava tube for the day, we still had one more cave to visit. We finished our lunch and headed off for the next adventure...

Coyote Calling

Pardon my rant. But rant I must.

I recently found out about a contest to hunt coyotes that will take place not too far from where I live (keeping in mind that distances are on a different dimension out here, anything within 100 miles 'isn't too far'). The goal of the contest is during one day kill as many coyotes as you can.

The supposed reason for the contest?
"Contest Purpose – to reduce the Coyote population in prime wild life habitats and to raise money for future projects sponsored by the Mule Deer Foundation Bristlecone Chapter"

Whoa, there. Did I miss something, or aren't coyotes also considered wildlife?

And is the Mule Deer Foundation really sponsoring this? I would have thought that a big, national organization would show a little more compassion.

I figured maybe I was just getting worked up because I usually try to protect all native species, and maybe I needed to get a different perspective. So I asked my husband what he thought about the contest.

He said, "I hope they don't hunt around here. We need those coyotes to eat the gophers that are out in the fields."

There you go. An ecologist's view and a rancher's view. We find that we agree most of the time, although our reasoning may be different.

I know that many in the sheep industry approve and support predator control. There is still a predator control guy who spends months in our valley trapping and poisoning coyotes before the sheep come in the winter. And there are low-flying planes that shoot coyotes.

But none of it makes much of a difference. Every year there are about as many coyotes as the year before. According to the website Predator Defense, the alpha coyote male and female are the only ones to breed, but if they are killed, then lots more coyotes breed. Apparently deer are only susceptible to being killed by coyotes for a few weeks in the spring, when the fawns are very small, but the rest of the time coyotes don't eat deer. Plus the deer populations are really high anyway (take a look at our feed yard to see that!).

So I don't like this coyote contest. It's going to go on regardless of how I feel about it, but I just need to write about it because it bothers me.

Okay, I feel better now. A little.

Kingsnake Survey

As I was going through my photos (noticing how I really need to name more of them), I found that I still have photos from May that I haven't uploaded. Seeing as we're almost in July, I figured I better get to it. These are from one of the last weekends in May, when we volunteered to help look for kingsnakes. The wildlife biologist at the park organized a volunteer week, but we just had part of a day to help. About 10 other volunteers showed up at the visitor center, and we had a little briefing and then drove up to the North Snake Range. I had to keep stopping to take photos of wildflowers, like the carpet of Douglas' Dustymaiden (Chaenactis douglasii) that made the valley bottoms and benches look covered with white polka dots.

The globemallow was also impressive, with splashes of orange lighting up the landscape.

We went up Hampton Creek, a scenic drainage with a stream running down it.

Here's another view of the Hampton Creek drainage. It might not look much different than the previous one, but the flowers are different! I really had flowers on the mind that day, plus it was a terrific time of year to enjoy them, before it got too hot.

While I started flipping rocks and looking into crevices to look for the kingsnakes, Desert Boy amused himself with his adventure pack, which included a magnifying glass for looking at things close up.

I enjoyed this close up view of a bumble bee. It was really beautiful. (Of course if it had stung me it wouldn't have been so beautiful, but since it left me alone we got along just fine.)

At one point we crossed the creek, which I wasn't able to photograph because it was fairly high water and I was wearing Emma and trying to swing Desert Boy across at the same time. I'm sure we were quite a sight! We didn't even get wet, so I'd say that was a success. Desert Boy had fun jumping across this little spring all on his own.

We had plenty of rocky areas to search, and Desert Boy started doing some rock climbing. He does very well on the climbing wall in our house, and he enjoyed practicing outside.

I stopped to look at what I think is some Selaginella watsonii, sort of similar to moss but not quite.

I also enjoyed the view out across the canyon. You can see that the aspens are just starting to get their leaves.

Meanwhile, Desert Boy had found something else to climb.

This was the fun part of the hike for him. He likes a good challenge. Wonder where he gets that from?

I got distracted by this dandelion that was growing out of a small pocket in the rock.

Desert Boy kept going up higher. (Grandparents: he is not really in any danger, it's just the angle of the photo that makes it look like he's really exposed.)
And Desert Boy made it off the rock just fine. We kept looking for kingsnakes, but all we saw were sagebrush and western fence lizards. Finally Desert Boy was totally worn out, so we headed back and found a convenient bridge to get back over the little creek.

I couldn't resist photographing this butterfly, which I still need to identify.

Now, I know, the title of this post probably had you thinking you were going to look at some kingsnakes. Only three were found during the survey, and I wasn't around to see any of them. However, in order not to be a total disappointment on the herpetological front, I have included some photos of a snake we saw in May on a different walk.

It was out on the road, and is a non-venemous snake that I call a racer. The correct name is actually striped whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus). They are known to move fast, but this one just stayed in one place while I walked all around it to take photos.

It has big round pupils and lifts its head to get a better look at me. Another characteristic are the white stripes on the dark body.

Finally I had taken enough photos and wandered off, leaving the snake to enjoy some more sunbathing.
The End.