The Valley – Part 9

 

The day after our Salt Springs and Mosaic Canyon explorations our neighbor, Pat, wanted to explore Salt Springs and Titus Canyon and asked us to tag along. 

Nicole took the re-visit opportunity to Salt Springs as the chance to catch a shot of the elusive Mountain Bluebirds she saw the day before.

Their bright blue stands out amongst the reds and greens of the pickle weed.

                                       Finally, a bit of success!

                          These little peepers just wouldn’t sit still.

We then headed off to Titus Canyon.  Having just fallen in love with the variety in Mosaic Canyon, we can’t say that the somewhat repetitive Titus won us over.  But the weather was outstanding and the sky as blue as the birds we had just seen so we explored a bit anyhow.

                       Another cool stone face.

 

While Darlene and Pat headed off to explore a side trail Nicole took the opportunity to sit quietly and wait for nature to come to her.  With visions of Big Horn Sheep and Coyotes in her head she sat.  And she sat.  Then… all of a sudden… there it was… and it sat down… right beside her!

                         Your eyes do not deceive you.  It is a fly.

And he said, “Beggars can’t be choosers.  Go ahead and snap a few photos because this is about as wild as life is gonna get for you today.”

A week or so or more back we hitched a ride to the visitor center.  When we couldn’t find a ride back home it was time to start hoofing it.  On our way out the door Pat told us to “look for the yellow flowers”.  Our three mile walk back home ended and we still had not seen any flowers.  We assumed Pat was just being kind in keeping our minds occupied with a game of seek and find on our long walk.  Then on this day while we were out she breezed past the turn for our compound and said, “I’m taking you to see the flowers!”  There they were just blooming away on the side of the road.

                        And they were loaded with more ‘wild life’.

Shortly after arriving home we took a snack outside to continuing enjoying the amazing ‘winter’ weather we were having.  Guess who show up and sat on a tree in front of us for close to four full minutes…

                                          A Mountain Bluebird.

Well, it has been a full month since we were last in town (read: since we last had internet service).  So, if you haven’t figured it out yet, this is one of only NINE posts (pages) that we put up all on the same day.  Click the word older at the bottom right just below this paragraph or check out the menu of posts at the upper right of your screen and be sure to start at The Valley – Part 1 to see our full adventures and photos from the last month.

We depart Death Valley in two weeks time.  New adventures await.  We’ll be in touch.

                               Meanwhile… it’s back to The Valley.