Full Circle

We escaped Winnemucca and Nevada in general - happy to say goodbye. The scenery for 80% of the day's drive was "high desert" - sage and sand at an altitude of around 4000 feet. Hundreds of miles of it. I love the subtle colours but we were thrilled to come across a marshland with Sandhill Cranes strolling amongst Canada Geese. Such unexpected long-legged birds. We also saw five pronghorn antelope which have been reintroduced in National Parks and preserves - another thrill.

We're now back in Portland where we started this holiday and it is pouring rain and apparently will for the two days we are staying here. See February blog entries for pictures!

Fish out of water

The forecast for today was for storms over the passes we had to negotiate to get across Nevada. We stopped in Wendover, Utah to ask about the roads. No one could help except to answer Bill's other question: "What do you do in Wendover?" The answer: "Gamble or drink!" Wendover straddles the Nevada/Utah border. It is clear which state you are standing in when you walk down Main Street. Six huge casinos on the Nevada end of the street advertise rooms for 1500 people. Looking down the street on the Utah side, you see no casinos, just little stores. The most obvious one is a pawn shop with big signs offering cash for gold, diamonds or guns!

We carried on working our way through the storms, passed up the town of Elco and all its casinos and headed for Winnemucca - right in the middle of Nevada and the last relatively inhabited place on the map. Because we weren't sure how far we were going to get, we had no room booked so when we phoned from Elco we got the last non-smoking room (there are probably only three in the whole town!). When we pulled up in front of it we realized that adding a hotel was an obvious afterthought. The casino is what you must be there for. We fought our way through the cloud of smoke, past semi-conscious people at slot machines (their fingers are awake, the rest of them left long ago) to the main desk. We used the back entrance from then on but only to slip in quickly after Bill bent over to pick up 22 casings on the sidewalk by the door! Shades of Elliot in Australia with the only option at this point being the car. We bolted up to our room which is amazingly okay, and will be slipping out early in the am heading for the Nevada/Oregon border as fast as possible. Talk about a fish out of water, I'm a goldfish whose bowl was dumped in the everglades...

From Beaver to Winnemucca... nostalgia and wind blasts

We spent the night in Beaver (I kid you not) and set off this morning to cover as much territory as we could. We stopped off in Provo, Utah, home of BYU, for a nostalgic trip around the campus Bill attended. It included walking through the door of the admin building minus the shaking knees he had after driving all the way down from Medicine Hat to write entrance exams forty-six years ago. We even found a few of the streets and apartments he lived in.

Then off into the gathering storm clouds. The weather forecast was dismal and we were afraid we would be stopped by snow in some of the passes. We did encounter blowing snow but the worst was the wind which rattled the car and threatened to push us into neighboring transport trucks - especially as we crossed eighty miles of salt flats outside Salt Lake City. The storms hung like curtains over the hills but we'd push through one, see bright sky, then push through another. We made it to Winnemucca, mid-way through Nevada - but that is for another chapter...

More colourful canyons

Between and after the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park we drove through or visited even more colourful canyons - all part of the giant staircase, a huge stepped plateau that covers part of four states. We understand (sort of) the reason for the formations but will soon forget those details. In the meantime, we'll never forget the exquisite colours and/or shapes of Navajo sandstone, Bryce Canyon, the Colorado Plateau or Red Canyon.

Zion - words fail us

We spent most of the day in Zion National Park and much of it trying to find words to describe it. We couldn't get past overused words such as magnificent, awesome, spiritual, ... All apply in this case. This is one of the most beautiful natural places we've ever seen.

Ain't it though?

The Grand Canyon is just that, snow or not. It is carefully managed for the full Wow! factor. You drive for miles through relatively flat, uninteresting desert (with a light covering of snow in this case) and come to the parking lots and tourist information building with no sign of any canyon. After wandering around looking at models, displays, reasons for formation of said canyon and most frequently asked questions, I just wanted to see it!! We followed the pathway along with a family from Belgium who asked us mostly in French if we knew where the canyon was?? We said we hoped we were heading in the right direction and soon spotted a fence. Then the group gasp told it all. The path leads to the edge which drops off 300 feet and there in front of us is the canyon - six miles across in places and a mile deep. The day was overcast and a slight haze made itfeel like we were looking through a window at times. But breath-taking it is. The weather had improved from the weekend when the snow was falling and a cold wind blowing. Icicles and a dusting of snow remains.

From bouganvillea to icicles

After a six-hour meandering drive along the beautiful Colorado River, we arrived in the town of Williams at the junction to the Grand Canyon and found it deep in snow. There are huge icicles hanging from buildings and we've been warned to look out for black ice. It warms up in the day and freezes at night. There were three serious accidents on the highway we came in on but by the time we got here, our side was cleared although the other side was still backed up for miles. We had no idea Williams was so high. It has an altitude of over 6500 feet! No wonder we've found winter after leaving the warmth of the desert. We're heading out for the Grand Canyon in the morning once we know the roads are clear. I expect to see it decorated with white....

Flying buggies...

We are spending our last three days in Palm Desert taking it easy. We hope to make one more trip up to Joshua Tree but that will depend on the weather! There is a wind warning in effect and our place is rattled now and then by the gusts. It is very freaky to listen to it roar. We went out earlier to run a few errands and as we were about to get out of the car, we heard a huge bang then watched three buggies flying across the parking lot one of which had hit and cracked our bumper! So we are now in the Albertson's risk management system and waiting to hear what is next. We were glad to have been in the car when it happened because we never would have guessed that it was an errant buggy and not just another driver who did the damage.....

If it is 1:00, it must be Rubens!

One day, seven museums! Sounds crazy but that is what we did on our last day in San Diego. Balboa Park has within its borders fifteen museums as well as individual gardens, fine arts venues and the San Diego Zoo - all within walking distance. Well we were barely walking at the end of the day but were glad for our blitz from opening to closing time. Our first stop was the Mingei Museum, devoted to folk arts and crafts where we were introduced formally to 150 Meneki Neko, those iconic cats who raise a paw in greeting in most Japanese restaurants. From there we moved to the Timken Museum of Art and tried to aborb paintings by Van Dyck, Rubens and Toulous Lautrec but were captivated by a beautiful shepherd girl whose artist we'd never heard of. A haunting model of "Lucy" the prehistoric young link from tree dwelling primate to walking human gazed back at us in the Museum of Man and challenged us to consider the power of the exhibit on race we had just seen downstairs. The Spirit of St. Louis and lunar module of Apollo 9 demonstrated the drive for adventure in the Air and Space Museum while the Tucker, Packards and Ferrari's were featured in "The glitz and glam" exhibit in the Automotive Museum. We're not sure how much we'll remember in a month but had a lot of fun doing a taste test - although maybe not as much as had by the dozens of kids clamboring over the dinosaur models and pulling and pulling levers and knobs in the Science Museum on resident's free day.

Trolley rides, pandas and lion pee..

We've managed to pack in lots since we arrived late afternoon yesterday in San Diego. The weather is perfect - t-shirt weather but not too hot. After finding our hotel in the Gaslamp district, we strolled the two main avenues looking at the beautiful buildings from the late 1800's that were never torn down and are now restored and treasured. We had dinner at a table outside across from Wyatt Earp's former brothel and gambling house which, like all the other buildings in the red light district, is now live-work up and restaurant down.

Early this morning, we took the 'hop on, hop off' Trolley for a tour of the city. We didn't hop off but rather spent two hours on a guided tour of unique areas including the famous Coronado Hotel (you can see it in Some Like it Hot), San Diego harbour, Old Town (turn of the century Spanish area), Little Italy (originally populated by Italian tuna fishermen) and the modern convention centre and downtown area. Buildings there are surprisingly low for such a large city - the proximity of the airport accounts for that.

Then off to the zoo! We spent five hours there. Highlights included a six-day old giraffe turning her back to the audience but peaking back now and then, and pandas offering photo ops - sitting and eating bamboo for the adoring crowd. I had an encounter with a male lion in spite of a warning sign of spraying up to 6-7 feet. I was on the watch and stood away from the crowd who stood close to the fence but in spite of that, he still managed to catch the bottom of my pant leg as I dodged him - Bill estimates it was a direct hit at 10 feet! How many people do you know who have had a lion pee on their leg and live to tell about it?? I stayed behind the glass from then on!

Over the mountain, down in the valley

The results of the San Bernadino Mountains' rain shadow was made clear to us when we drove back home today. We drove up one side through barren desert that made us think of Death Valley. It was dotted with large motorhomes either in groups or sitting alone with the awnings up. This state park allows for "Open Camping" which means you can drive your motorhome out in the desert anywhere and stay for as long as you like. The 40 degree weather made it look pretty unappealing to us but lots of people obviously disagree.

Once over the top of the mountains and into the valley, the terrain changed dramatically. The green-clad hills were painted with tiny yellow flowers and dotted with cattle. We stopped and watched planes pull gliders up to the tops of the mountains to glide back down and land in silence.

Before long we were climbing up out of the valley and once at the top, we left the green behind and were back into the desert. The heat was with us all day but moderated by the climb. Back home, it was 38 degrees at 9:00 pm in Palm Desert.

Pelicans, stilts and avocets

We went to the Salton Sea two years ago and came away unimpressed but decided to give it another try. The artificial sea was formed in the early 1900's when a broken dyke allowed the Colorado River to flood the low-lying plain for two years! After a century of life it is now dying, the salt concentration so high that it can sustain very little life. However it continues to be a magnet for migrating birds and this visit we drove much further around the lake than we did last time in the hopes of seeing some. It takes perserverance to go birdwatching at the Sonny Bono Nature Preserve at the far end of the lake. We got up before the Palm Desert birds and drove 70 miles through industrial and struggling neighbourhoods. The camp sites which spot the lakeside are grim but we continued to drive and were eventually rewarded with a flock of white pelicans elegantly sunning themselves close to shore.

It turned out to be another scorcher so as we continued our exploration we would take a deep breath of air-conditioned air and plunge out into the unbelievable heat. We sat on the bank of one marsh for twenty dripping minutes watching lovely little shore birds including varieties I'd never heard of before: the Common (okay, okay!) Black-necked Stilt and the American Avocet. Check them out sometime, they are both delicate and gorgeous!

On our way to the preserve, we passed 10 ominous-looking geothermal plants taking advantage of the volcanic geology below the surface. These and large agricultural operations surround the preserves. We stopped and watched a glossy ibis mob helping themselves to one crop we couldn't identify. There are crops especially for the visiting birds in the preserve to avoid this clash but obviously the crop is greener on the other side of the fence...

Bill still finds himself amazed that he can spend a day binoculars and bird books in hand, driving more than 70 miles to see a Cinnamon Teal and actually like it!

It's hot!

Ocotillo and bouganvillea are blooming outside. I'm drooping....

Sunken garden

It is hot today and we decided to go check out the Palm Springs Art Museum outdoor sculpture garden/cafe. We were able to sit in the shade and enjoy the sculptures surrounding us while we sipped our lattes but agreed with the experts that you probably could fry an egg on the pavement today.

Teddy bears and hedgehogs

The cactus are the best treat in the desert. Cholla or teddy bear cactus glisten in the sun and call out to you to come closer! These are very sticky and sharp customers unlike their names and love to attach themselves to your shoes, shirts or skin if you're not careful. The teddy bear name comes from the dead branches which turn chocolate brown. They stay fuzzy (and very sharp).

Hedgehog cacti hide their beauty. You have to get off main paths to find them but it is a thrill when one of the beautiful flowers reveal themselves.

Joshua Tree visions

Joshua Tree National Park is divided in two parts according to whether it is in the Mohave or Colorado Deserts. You know you are in the Mohave if there are Joshua trees in your viewfinder. These trees are described as Dr Seuss trees - they are odd and in fact really not trees at all - closer relatives are grasses and orchids! Believe me, you can never take too many pictures of this plant in the search for the perfect speciman!

Cottonwood Spring walk

We made our first visit to Joshua Tree this week. We discovered that you can never tire of the odd vision of the Joshua Trees and the subtle beauty of the desert plants. The weather was perfect for desert walks - apparently 10 degrees cooler than usual. Mid-70's up at the highest elevation. We even needed to wear jackets at times - I like it! Much easier to hike when you aren't fighting 90 degree weather.

We were told about a side trail to a small spring where there might be some interesting birds. I found lots of exquisite desert flowers to admire and the rock formations were beautiful. We had a phainopepla lead us down the path. (Don't you love the way that rolls off my tongue?) He flew from bush to bush all the way back to the main trail as if we were in a Disneyland movie.

Phainopepla at 11:00 o'clock!

Up at 6:30 am to head up to Morongo Valley for a bird watch, we wondered if we'd be two of a few other tourists led by a serious birder through the marsh. Turned out that we were two novices in a crowd of about twenty-five keener beaners! Walking alongside tilley-hatted birders, lists in hand, scopes at the ready, we knew we'd hit the jackpot when we heard one shout, "Phainopepla at 11:00 o'clock!" A later cry from more than one was "Laurence goldfinch chasing a sharpie!" (aka, Sharp-shinned hawk being chased away by two tiny golden birds as he flew too close to their nest.)

Truth is our first sighting was a turkey vulture showing off his red bald head as he perched on the park sign but the morning was amazing - more sightings, laughs and wonders than we could have imagined. Bill accused me of being more interested in the birders than the birds but I think I split my interest about 50/50.

These intrepid birders were generous in their enthusiasm and knowledge, setting up their scopes on some colourful little wonder and offering views to whoever wanted to see a chipping sparrow, a ladder-backed woodpecker or, my new best friend, the lovely little phainopepla - a coal-black, crested, silky flycatcher who sat patiently on the tops of branches allowing pictures from all angles.
We did see the vermillion flycatcher and I gasped at my first viewing of this tiny, brilliant red flycatcher. He wouldn't stay put long so my pictures are of a red dot in the distance but believe me, he was worth the morning alarm clock.

At the end of the day, Bill said he was only disappointed that we hadn't see the Western wood-peewee flycatcher but we did add 28 birds to our newly started list. And there is always tomorrow....