Monsoon season

I didn't quite understand why they call it that until yesterday. All of the mountain mud rushes down into the valley, red, into the streets. Thirty minutes later, the sun is out again, the streets are flooded.


Work has alternatively been busy and boring, but this week I will begin designing the tortoise study, which will be accompanying their relocation. I may be applying to UNLV very soon for grad school so that I can get my masters!

Saw The Simpson Movie last night, it was hilarious!! Loved it. Tonight we saw My Fair Lady at the Tuachan theatre- our neighbor plays Colonel Pickering and got us great seats. It's an outdoor ampitheatre, which was beautiful but hot. A fell asleep, but I don't blame him.

Tomorrow, another hike in Snow Canyon.

Tonopah, Part three (finis)

No one could tell me for sure if this tiny building was actually a bordello or not. It was in a crazy looking ghost town about one hour outside of Tonopah. A sign said that the population was 27, but I didn't see a soul.

In the second to last picture, I'm lowering an infared camera down into an abandoned mine.

P.S. Happy Pioneer Day!
Pioneer day is basically Mormon Fourth of July. Mostly, people set off fireworks (2 July Fourths is great for wildfires) and have parades, but some people reenact Mormon pioneers by dressing up and pushing handcarts. Woo! Who knew being miserable could be so much fun?

Tonopah, Part two

Tonopah, part one

The star-gazing capital of the U.S.

I'm in Tonopah, Nevada for the "Bat Bonanza". Last night we sat calmly in middle of the desert, counting bats that left mine shafts using night-vision goggles. The stars actually were amazing, Tonopah's only claim to fame. The Milky Way was plainly obvious and arched across the entire sky. It was totally silent except for the heat lighting on the horizon.

We are counting bats because if these abandoned mines don't contain them, they will be sealed off for human safety. I thought this made complete sense until I saw these entrances, which actually look like giant ant hills of shale. Somehow, people still manage to ride ATVs up the hills and down into the endless holes. I heard a story about someone doing just that, but actually surviving because the landed on top of another ATV and rider who had made the same mistake.

Every restaurant here (all three, literally) double as bars/gambling clubs. It is now clear why gambling is legal here- there is nothing else to spend your money on. I also had the pleasure of explaining to Kym, the Australian who is here on exchange, that the many "ranches" which dot the otherwise blank highways are actually bordellos.

We'll be here doing the counts until Thursday. Praise be to the Patron Saint of the Internet, there is actually WiFi here at the Jim Butler Motel. Pictures will follow later, but for the time being, here are some shots from last weekend's hike in Snow Canyon:

Tortoise

I saw my first Desert Tortoise today! We went out with a GPS unit loaded with data points from preliminary surveys for tortoise burrows and found several. We found a promising looking burrow and used a fiber optic scope to look down into it. I looked through the eyepiece, and after some adjustments there was a tortoise looking right into the camera! He was very curious and soon after that we pulled out the scope and he crawled up to the surface to watch us. He was almost 12 inches wide.

I also saw a huge family of quails and some neat types of barrel cacti. Unfortunately, this strip of land is surrounded by new developments and a golf course. On top of that, people use the land illegally to ride ATVs and there is a lot of broken glass in certain spots. It was awesome seeing the tortoise, but a little depressing that so many people overlook them. There are about 100 other burrows on this little island of wilderness.

Cactus Holiday

(The tart I made for the 4th, and my pet cacti)

Work has been busy, and I got my first paycheck today! Today we went to a California Condor release site and saw several young'ns. We stopped at and drove by several of the little B&Bs near the Vermillion Cliffs monument. I hope to do a lot of hiking out there soon, perhaps when it gets a bit cooler. Also went to the Grand Canyon National park, the view was beautiful, but unfortunately the visibility is limited because the number of wildfires that are going on out here.

I'm going to NV for several days for a bat monitoring project next week. After tha,t A and I are going to Vegas for the weekend! Woop!

Hikes at work

The last two are from the north rim of the Grand Canyon

Scorcher

Palms in Utah? Indeed. The high for today is 114 degrees. Right now it is about 108.

Tripping Out, Part 5

Arizona & Zion NP

Tripping Out, Part 4

These are all from Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.