Tortoises in Zion II

beetles in a thistle flower, a male desert tortoise, a yellow opuntia blossom, and a Chuckwalla that thinks he is sneaky

Tortoises in Zion

I've just finished the desert tortoise survey in Zion, which I've been working on for the past seven weeks. This involved a lot of hiking, climbing, and sometimes falling.

We saw a lot of cool stuff aside from tortoises (even though it's hard to beat a cute tortoise that you just stumble upon in the middle of nowhere that looks up at you all "hey, what up?").

I'll be posting some of my favorite photos of the all flora and fauna to be found in the springtime where the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin collide.







Claret Cup cactus, Banana Yucca in bloom, Desert Collared Lizard, workin' a transect, prickly pear blossom

photo free interlude

My computer broke today. The AC adaptor stopped working. I bought a new one, and it doesn't work either. Therefore, I am drinking a gin & tonic and hoping that my life's photos aren't lost. I am a bit tired from hiking both for work and for pleasure. This weekend we will take it easy and eat CHILI at Paul's.

Salt Lake City

Here are a few photos from SLC last month. Unfortunately, we did not get photos of the best thing that we saw there: a drag show headlined by Jackie Beat. Here are a few slightly less interesting Mormon-y things, plus the Great Salt Lake.

Vermilion Cliffs

Desert Museum in AZ

I went rock climbing for the first time yesterday! It was really fun, Brett and Nathan showed me how. I'd like to climb some more, but I don't have any equipment, obviously. We may go again in Moab this weekend.

Work is going smoothly this week in Zion. We have picked up a rhythm and are ahead of schedule. Now I'm off to make pineapple shrimp kebabs!

Here are some more photos from southern AZ, at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum:

Tucson, AZ

A killed a spider and he is obsessively trying to determine if it is a Brown Recluse. Not to illigitmize his find, but he thinks that every brown spider he kills is a Brown Recluse. At this moment, he is using a toy microscope to examine the "fiddle pattern" on it's abdomen.

Onward with more photos. The mission church below is from Ajo, Arizona. The remaining photos are from Tucson.