September 2022
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
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Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
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September 1, 2022. Fort Collins, CO and Poudre Canyon, Bellvue, CO. 2.2 miles today, 4278.1 miles total.
This morning I went for a bird walk in Greenbriar Park across the street from our friends’ house. The park is irrigated from its central pond with water drawn off from the ditch behind our friends’ house. The irrigation hoses had been spraying full blast throughout the park just before I set out, so I was hoping I wouldn’t get caught in them in case they started up again. Fortunately, I managed to stay dry. There were a few early morning dog walkers out on the sidewalks with me. I found some cottonwoods growing near the pond, as well as a stand of mixed Russian olive and chokecherry. A flock of cedar waxwings were feeding off the chokecherries. On my way back to the house, I went up the alley towards Redwing Marsh where I had heard some birds. I found a white-breasted nuthatch, some goldfinches, and some house finches there in a large cottonwood tree.
After breakfast, our friends took us for a hike up Poudre Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Forest. This is a favorite hike of theirs, where they often bring friends who have just arrived from the coasts for an easy acclimation walk. As long as we paused frequently to admire the plants and insects, I had no trouble with the climb. But if we simply walked at a “normal” pace, I had a bit of trouble keeping up. So I was glad I had my camera along as an excuse. My friend is quite enamored with mosses, so we stopped to check out some patches of Hedwigia ciliate and Syntrichia in the stream bank. I also shot some alfalfa, juniper, and ponderosa pines. My friend introduced me to Doug Fir, who I had never met before. Quite handsome! Other finds included some bees, European paper wasps, skippers, and beetles. After our walk, we had lunch at a riverside burger joint. We checked out the river bank and found some poop covered with flies and some drowned stoneflies. On our way back to Fort Collins, we stopped at a farmstand and shot some pollinators in the planted flowers, including lots of honeybees, some European paper wasps and some beetles.
September 2, 2022. Fort Collins, CO. 0.3 miles today, 4278.4 miles total.
This morning I managed to fit in a short walk before breakfast and packing for our flight to Salt Lake City. I walked up the road towards Redwing Marsh, hoping to see the goldfinches and house finches, but all I found was a single pair of goldfinches in the parking lot and a molting blue jay in front of the house.
September 3, 2022. Antelope Island, Syracuse, UT. 3 miles today, 4281.4 miles total.
The weather forecast called for triple digit temperatures by this afternoon, so we packed up a picnic breakfast and tried to beat the heat with an early morning trip out to Antelope Island. The island is actually a peninsula on the eastern shore of Salt Lake. On the way across the 7 mile causeway to Antelope State Park, we saw some cars pulled alongside the road with some birders and some heavy duty glass. We pulled up alongside them, casually shot some birds, and drove on. The birds appeared to be mostly white-faced ibises and black-necked stilts, with some sandpipers mixed in. We continued on to Ladyfinger Point where we enjoyed our picnic breakfast at a shaded table. Then we drove up to the visitor’s center, picked up a trail map, and shot some bees. We started down the 11 mile shoreline trail (after shooting a coyote in the road) vowing to walk only until the sun began to get hot, which was about 20 minutes. Along the trail, we shot some of the wild buffalo that live on the island, as well as a lizard and lots of pollinators in the sunflowers and sticky gumweed blossoms. We wanted to at least stick our fingers in the lake, but due to drought, the water has receded far from the shoreline, beaches and trails. We pulled over in a parking lot to see if we could walk a little closer to the water, and then were amazed to notice that the parking lot was actually at the marina. The docks were all high and dry, resting on baked mud. We walked down the boat ramp and started heading towards the opening to the bay, but the mud was jiggly, like a quaking bog, so we decided maybe that wasn’t a good idea after all. By noon we were back in our air-conditioned jeep heading home to estivate for the afternoon.
September 4, 2022. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Brigham City, UT. 2 miles today, 4283.4 miles total.
This morning we packed another picnic breakfast and headed way north to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Brigham City. When we drove into the visitors’ center there, we had a sinking feeling—there were lots of spaces in the lot, but not a single other car. Had we missed the memo that the birds were all missing due to the drought? There were no picnic tables or shade at the visitors’ center, so we swung the jeep around to face the sun, then sat in the shaded tailgate to eat. While we ate, another car pulled up and discharged a single person, a jogger, not a birder. That’s not a good omen for a birding spot on a Sunday morning. Still, we could hear killdeer in the distance and saw a pair of northern harriers flying low. We started down the trail and soon found a common yellowthroat in the phragmites, then a marsh wren (lifer), then a pair of sandhill cranes appeared in the distance, and we also came across a great blue heron and a snowy egret in the small pond that still had water in it. We also shot some invasive species: Phragmites, tamarisk and bullfrog, plus some bees and wasps in the sunflowers, ants and isopods on the sidewalk, and sulphurs and metalmarks flitting about the sunflowers.
Next, we drove west out of the parking lot, looking for the refuge's auto tour, a 12-mile loop that was mentioned in the website. We drove and drove and drove, enjoying the views of the dried up lake and mountains on all sides. All this time, we thought we were already on the 12-mile loop, but actually, this was just the access road. The 12-mile loop was beyond our GPS’s map, shown as entirely covered with water. It was indeed a dry road after all, a single lane dirt road through the wetlands, with white-faced ibises, black-necked stilts, sandpipers, grebes, flocks of white pelicans, geese, Western coots, and ducks scattered about. There were only 2 other cars on the loop with us. They each contained some serious non-social birders with huge lenses. I think they might have been interested in the grebes, but they didn’t seem interested in talking to us. We finished the trail by 1:00 and headed back to Salt Lake City to estivate through the afternoon heat.
Sept. 5, Salt Lake City, Burraston Ponds, Santaquin, and Koosharem Reservoir, Burrville, Panorama Point, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. 1.3 miles today, 4284.7 miles total.
This morning our guide picked my husband and me up at the airport for the start of our tour of the canyonlands. He brought us to a hotel near the airport where we met up with the other 6 members of our group. While we were waiting for the other members to arrive, my husband and I crossed the street and took a walk through some weedy scrublands across the street from the hotel. We found some Russian olive trees, some rubber rabbitbrush, and a dandelion.
Our group stopped for a picnic lunch at Burraston Ponds. Since it was Labor Day, the ponds were quite busy with locals, but we managed to find a picnic table in the back near a small pond that was surrounded by Russian olive trees, the largest I had ever seen, and lots of phragmites. There were a domestic duck and an American coot floating at the far end of the pond, not far from a robin on the shore. A belted kingfisher also flew by. We also found some American bullfrogs, some damselflies, a skimmer, and some other flies. Beside the pond was a muddy patch where we found tracks of a racoon, a domestic cat (presumably feral), and a mule deer. I found galls on rose and autumn olive.
We made another brief stop at Koosharem Reservoir to stretch our legs. The reservoir was nearly entirely dry, except for a muddy patch and a tiny stream. We saw a kestrel in the distance and some mallards. Several members of the group went down to check out a dead heron by the mud patch, but I decided it was too hot (triple digits) to walk that far. I found some rubber rabbitbrush, mullein, autumn olive, and lesser burdock up closer to the road.
We arrived at our hotel on the outskirts of Capital Reef National Park in time for dinner. After dinner, we drove out to Panorama Point to view the sunset. We found some juniper, Mormon tea, rubber rabbitbrush, and Stansbury’s cliffrose on the cliffs.
Sept. 6, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. 6.8 miles today, 4291.5 miles total.
This morning we drove to Torrey to pick up our sandwiches for lunch. While we waited for our guides to get the sandwiches, I scurried around the parking lot and shot some collared doves. Then we drove to the Capitol Reef visitors’ center, where I found some Opuntia cactus and several kinds of galls in the rubber rabbitbrush. We spent the remainder of the morning in Fruita, walking a short flat trail along a tiny stream. Fruita was a Mormon settlement with an orchard that is now part of the park. While at the visitors’ center, our guides overheard a ranger mention a dead deer that was found near the stream. We found several more rangers milling about in the orchard near the stream trail. They were mum about what they were doing there, and then we noticed the deer carcass under some shrubs near the stream. Our guides put the story together for us, noting the signs posted along the trail and campground that warned about mountain lion activity. Apparently, the deer was a fresh kill, evidence that the mountain lion was indeed quite near and quite active, but the rangers weren’t telling anyone about it. A short ways up the path beyond the dead deer we noticed some tracks in the mud beside the stream, including mountain lion prints. Other sights along the walk were a plumbeous vireo, a lizard with a blue tail, and a fish that was flopping about in the grass in the orchard, presumably having been stranded by the irrigation system. I found galls on rubber rabbitbrush, ash, Fremont’s poplar, willow, skunk sumac, and sagebrush. Other plants included some horsetails and a dandelion.
After a picnic lunch near the stream and several live mule deer, we drove up the road to hike to Hickman bridge. The temperature was about 100 degrees, and our guide told us that the hike up to the bridge was steep and exposed to the sun. I didn’t think that sounded like much fun, and I didn’t want to risk heat stroke, so I decided to stay back. I sat for a few minutes on a dead log in the shade, then moved off to sit under the road bridge over the stream. It wasn’t long before a member of our group came back and joined me, and then another. Rather than sit and wait the entire time for the rest of the group to return, I went off in search of wild flowers and insects near the road bridge. I found Wyoming paintbrush, some yellow flowers, some primrose, quite a few other small flowering plants and some moss. I spotted the remains of some cliff swallow nests under the bridge, and I also caught a robber fly and a lizard.
After the rest of the group returned from the hike, we got in the vans again and went for a drive down to Angel Point. The road through the canyon follows the stream bed, similar to the road we used to drive down Wadi Bih to Dibba in Oman. The canyon walls rise high on either side of the road/stream bed. As we drove, our guide shared the story of a recent flash flood through the canyon captured on video. He said that a family had driven down this road and were picnicking at the end when it started to rain. Then it began to hail, and then waterfalls started flowing over the cliffs. Panicked, the family jumped into their pickup truck and tried to drive out but were nearly carried away in the flash floods. Today, though, there was not a chance of rain. The river bed was quite, quite dry. At the end of the road we got out and I noticed a sign about endemic plants at this location. Unfortunately, we only stayed a few minutes, so I wasn’t able to search out the endemics. I managed to find some Fremont’s barberry, pinyon pines, juniper, and some small flowering plants.
After dinner, our guides suggested a sunset walk on the cliffs above Goosenecks Trail. About half the group were too beat to make the trip, having gotten so overheated on the Hickman Bridge trail. However, I was feeling fresh and cheerful, so I was glad for the additional outing. Along the cliffs, I found pinyon pine, juniper, Mormon tea, and primrose.
Sept. 7 Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon, Utah. 4.2 miles today, 4295.7 miles total.
In the morning we packed up our vans and headed south towards Bryce Canyon, over the mountains and through Dixie National Forest. We made several stops along the way to enjoy the views. At the stops we found some penstemon, Wyoming paint brush, Gambel oaks, and pinyon pines. We spotted some nuthatches as well. I found galls on rubber rabbitbrush and rose.
We stopped for a short walk and a picnic lunch at Lost Calf Park. The walk along the river there was flat and easy, right through the campground. Lunch was at picnic tables in a bright sunny area; at least the tables were partially shaded by metal canopies, since it was quite, quite hot. There were some hummingbird feeders near the picnic area, where we saw broad-tailed hummingbirds. There were also quite a few spotted towhees at the park. I found galls on skunk sumac and Gambel oaks.
We checked into our rooms at Ruby’s Lodge just outside Bryce Canyon later in the afternoon. After dinner at Ruby’s, we drove out to enjoy the sunset over Inspiration Point. I found galls there on rubber rabbitbrush.
Sept. 8, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. 5.9 miles today, 4301.6 miles total.
This morning I shot some American coots and Western bluebirds near the ponds behind Ruby’s. Then we drove inside Bryce Canyon Park to walk the Wall Street and Navajo Loop trails through the hoodoos. The trails were exceptionally scenic. There were plenty of people walking the trails with us, but it didn’t feel overly crowded. Our guides had us walk down Wall Street and up the Navajo Loop because the slope on the Navajo Loop trail is less steep, making for an easier climb out than you get going the other direction. Inside the canyon, we saw several chipmunks and the remains of some cliff swallow nests. I also shot some pinyon pines, blue elder, and Wyoming paintbrush.
For lunch, we drove out to Bright Angel Point for a picnic. Unfortunately, the area was overrun with yellow jackets, who descended upon us as soon as we opened our coolers to get our sandwiches out. No one was stung, but we had to wander off quickly in different directions to try to stay ahead of the wasps. After we were done eating, the wasps disappeared, and we went for a hike through the woods. We found some bristlecone pines, ponderosa pines, and Douglas firs and were entertained by a green-tailed towhee who interrupted our trailside geology lecture. I found galls on rose and rubber rabbitbrush. Throughout our walk, we heard some not-so-distance thunder, so we didn’t dawdle very long on the trail. After dinner at the Bryce Canyon lodge, we went for a walk along sunrise point to see the sunset. The skies were still somewhat cloudy, so the sunset was muted, but the scenery was still spectacular. I found galls on rubber rabbitbrush.
Sept. 9, Mossy Cave, Bryce Canyon, Kanab, Utah, and Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona. 3.8 miles today, 4305.4 miles total.
This morning we took a stroll along the path beside the ponds behind Ruby’s, where I shot some white-throated swallows, Canada geese, and American coots. Then we packed the vans and drove down to the trailhead at Mossy Cave. We walked the Mossy Cave trail were we found blue elder, Stansbury’s cliffrose, penstemon, and of course, moss in the “cave” (actually, just a damp cliff overhang). We also paused to appreciate some fly larvae in the stream at the end of the trail. That is, our North Branch Nature Center guide found us puzzling over some strange rubbery masses on the rocks in the stream, and helped us deduce that there were fly larvae covering them. Meanwhile, our local Utah guide, an avid birder, was waiting and waiting for us to return from the trail’s end. Finally, he came up to see what we had found and was astounded that we had spent such a long time pondering…fly larvae. When he signed on to help guide the trip, he was delighted that our group was interested in birds and all sorts of wild things. But fly larvae…that was beyond any of his past experiences. He took it in stride, though, and continued to seek out all sorts of critters and plants to point out to us.
Down the road from the Mossy Cave trail we stopped at the visitors’ center for a short pitstop and to stretch our legs. My husband and I did a quick dash through the loop trail there. I found galls on rose, sagebrush, and rubber rabbitbrush. A short distance down the road from the visitors’ center, we spotted some pronghorns in a sagebrush field.
After lunch in downtown Kanab, we drove out to Navajo Bridge to look for California condors. We paused at an overlook and tried to decide whether a flock of black birds in the far distance were condors or vultures, but it was simply too far to tell for sure, even with spotting scopes. Meanwhile, we marveled over the approaching rainstorm, which we watched from above. When we finally got down to Navajo Bridge, luck was with us—there were 2 on the struts under the bridge. As our guide was telling us about the geology of the location, I turned around and spotted a third condor on the other side of the bridge, so it was end of lecture as we all gathered round to admire the bird. Then our phones began hooting with flash flood warnings. As we drove back up onto the plateau, we saw the dry stream beds now starting to run, with flash flood waters arriving through the stream beds while we drove by.
After a long, windy drive up the plateau, we arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. When we got out of the vans, we were initially wary of the masses of yellow jackets swarming the car in front of us in the parking lot. We moved away, only to find the yellowjackets in front of all the cars. One of our group members checked in with Google, and found that yellowjackets will swarm the fronts of cars to dine on dead bugs. Although the air in the parking lot was thick with them, they didn’t seem interested in anything but the cars.
Sept. 10, Widforss Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. 4.9 miles today, 4310.3 miles total.
This morning we drove up to the Widforss Trail for a short hike. The weather was iffy, with fog and thunder in the distance. The area around the trail head reminded me of Vermont, with lush understory growth and plenty of trees. But the trees were ponderosa pines, white firs, gambel oaks, and junipers. We found plenty of sunflowers and hoary asters along the trail. We also sighted a hermit thrush, a lizard, and a 3-toed woodpecker. I saw some black thread-waisted wasps, several large oil beetles, and a bee in a sunflower. Throughout our walk there was a constant background hum of yellow jackets. They were everywhere along the trail, hovering just above the ground and flying in amongst the needles of the fir trees. We got very lucky—not only did it not rain on us, but the fog cleared at the scenic overlook, giving us some magnificent canyon views.
In the afternoon, we had some free time to do what we wanted. I decided to explore the Bright Angel Trail and make a loop of the Traverse and Nature trails as well. As I headed out towards the Bright Angel trail, I spotted some leaf galls on the manzanita in front of the lodge and paused to shoot them. A couple from Georgia approached and asked if I knew what the plant was. I told them it was manzanita and explained about the gall. It turned out they were enthusiastic Seek users and were using it to learn plants along their trip. I cut through the lodge and headed down the Bright Angel trail, which follows the rim from the lodge out to an exposed viewpoint. In places, the trail has rails on both sides, with steep mile deep drop-offs on either side. Through those sections, I kept my eyes on the trail to minimize vertigo. I found Stansbury’s cliff rose, juniper, pinyon pine, and ponderosa pine. On the Traverse/Nature trail I found some big toothed maple, sagebrush, mountain mahogany, and blue elder. I also came across that same couple from Georgia, doing the trail in the opposite direction while using Seek. That was my first time encountering someone else on a trail who was collecting iNat observations. Along the trail, I shot a lizard, some Stellar’s jays, and some skippers. I also found galls on manzanita, rubber rabbitbrush, rose, and sage brush.
In the evening, we drove out to Point Royal for a picnic dinner, stopping at Point Imperial and Theodore Roosevelt Point along the way. I found some honey locust, pinyon pine, Stansbury’s cliff rose, and sage brush, plus some fern bush and Ribes and some galls on sagebrush. The sunset dinner at the Point Royal overlook into the canyon was sublime, with perfect temperatures, myriads of changing colors, and delightful company.
Sept. 11, Coral Sands State Park, Kanab, and Zion National Park, Utah. 4.4 miles today, 4314.7 miles total.
This morning we packed up early and drove down to Kanab on our way to Zion Canyon. We made a quick stop at Coral Sands State Park in Kanab before lunch, though, to search for the park’s endemic tiger beetles. We found several ground beetles and some grasshoppers but no tiger beetles. The wild flowers in the sand dunes were exceptional, with groups of donkey ears, hoary tansy asters, and lots of tiny flowers that I didn’t recognize.
After lunch we drove through Zion National Park, stopping at a few pullovers to take in the canyon. At one of these pullovers we sighted a big-horned sheep, just like the one on my husband’s new lifetime national parks pass that he purchased at the park entrance. I also found some galls on rubber rabbitbrush.
In the evening, we hiked the Par’us Trail, which runs along the river through the Zion park campground. We found a garter snake (the first snake of the trip), a lizard, a large beetle, and some galls on sagebrush. One of our guides spent some time turning rocks in the river and came up with a delightful hellgrammite.
Sept. 12, Zion National Park, Utah. 6.4 miles today, 4321.1 miles total.
This morning we drove to the Zion entrance and parked the vans, then took the park shuttles up to the lodge for a hike up the Emerald Pools Trail. On the bridge across the stream, we paused to watch an American dipper checking rocks for invertebrates, reminiscent of our guide last night. The trail winds up along a cliff that becomes damp with a small waterfall. Near the waterfall we found Western maidenhair fern and yellow columbine. Trees along the trail included big-toothed maple, scrub oak, ponderosa pine, juniper, and pinyon pine. We found a number of arthropods, including a Tetragnatha spider and a tarantula wasp, as well as 2 kinds of lizards. The trail had quite a few fellow hikers, but there weren’t so many that it felt claustrophobic.
After a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the lodge, where we were visited by a summer tanager in the tree above our heads, we took the shuttle further up the canyon and did a short walk along the Riverside Trail. Several of our group members took off their shoes and sock and went wading in the stream. They spotted some interesting flies in the bushes on the other side of the stream. Meanwhile, I found galls in rubber rabbitbrush and sagebrush.
In the evening, we drove out to Lava Point Overlook for a farewell picnic dinner at sunset. Unfortunately, the overlook was fenced off. From the overlook, we could see out over the entire Zion Canyon area. But due to the closure, we dined at an open table off to the side, still a mountain view and very quiet, but not quite as stunning as the Zion views. This spot also had very active yellow jackets, but fortunately, they were not very aggressive and mostly left us alone as we ate. We didn’t see any yellowjackets at all in town when we ate dinner outside at a restaurant last night. This made me think that perhaps the yellowjackets are a phenomenon related to altitude—for some reason, perhaps lack of predation, they are extremely common at high altitudes, but not so lower down. I shot some pinyon pines and junipers at dinner. After we finished eating, we drove down the hill a short ways to an overlook and took some photos there and shared some sparkling cider while we watched lightning flashes in the distance down in Springdale.
Sept. 13, Virgin River Canyon Campground, Littlefield, AZ, Hualapai Mountain Park Campground, Kingman, AZ. 0.5 miles today, 4321.6 miles total.
Last night’s heavy rain was still falling this morning as we packed our bags for our final leg to Las Vegas. As we cleared out of our room, I paused to shoot some insects under our AC unit, including several cockroaches and a bug. Then we piled in the vans and headed south towards Las Vegas. We stopped along the way at a national forest site for restrooms and leg stretching. At the rest stop, we saw a flock of grouse as well as several new kinds of plants including Joshua trees, a barrel cactus, and jumping chola. We also saw a large beetle. I found galls on rubber rabbitbrush.
At the airport, my husband and I said goodbye to our fellow travelers as they headed off to check into their flights. Then we picked up our rental car for the second half of our western excursion. We drove east 2 hours to Hualapai Mountain Park to spend a few days mellowing out before heading off to the Grand Canyon south rim. I was delighted to find a family of acorn woodpeckers, another lifer species, hanging out in the trees just across the road from our little camp cabin at Hualapai.
Sept. 14, Hualapai Mountain Park Campground, Kingman, AZ. 6.1 miles today, 4327.7 miles total.
This morning I took a short birdwalk around the campground. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get eBird to start, but it wasn’t able to find my location, so it wouldn’t start a checklist. Yesterday in the van, one of our group mentioned that he was also having trouble getting a GPS fix. I wonder if the GPS system is not working. On my walk I saw the acorn woodpeckers and some nut hatches. I also found several California poppies, yet another lifer.
After breakfast, my husband and I drove up to the top of the campground and parked at the trail heads to explore some of the trails. I chose to walk Levi Levi Rd instead of one of the named trails because it had the least elevation change. The camp is around 8,000 feet elevation, but the trails go up much higher. My husband walked on ahead, hoping to make the walk at least a little bit aerobic. After we parted ways, I began to wonder if I was safe walking alone. I was mostly concerned about mountain lions, which our friends in Colorado had warned could be a problem for lone hikers. I soon caught up to my husband, though, who had paused to show me a smushed tarantula in the road, which was very exciting—my first wild tarantula. Then my husband walked on ahead again, and I looked at the trees, noting ponderosa pine, Douglass fir, white fir, Gambel oak and scrub oak, but no junipers. The road wound along the side of the mountain. It was a dirt road that appeared to have been graded quite recently, with most of the roadside plants gone or disturbed. Although the road was officially closed, a single pickup truck passed me as I ascended. I also found galls on scrub oak and Gambel oak. When we were returning downhill again, we came across a man who introduced himself as Hualapai John. John hikes the mountain trails several times a week, alternating with hiking the county river trails, which he heartily recommended. I found galls on scrub oak and Gambel oak.
Late in the afternoon I went out to explore the campground some more, this time intending to walk through all the camping areas. I was surprised, though—the campsites are quite spread out, and in 1:30 or 2.7 miles, I did not get all the way around the campsites. I did find and walk the Nature Trail, though. On the nature trail I saw a strange new-to-me plant. It had white flowers shaped somewhat like an overgrown English plantain, but much larger, and the leaves were different, too. I also found a new fern, the third for the day, and a flock of scrub jays.
What a wonderful trip, Erika! So many places on my bucket list...
9/15/23. Hualapai Mountain Park Campground, Kingman, AZ, and Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 2.5 miles today, 4330.2 miles total.
This morning I took one final bird walk around the campground at Hualapai. I found acorn woodpecker, spotted towhee, Woodhouse’s scrub-jay, hermit thrush, and dark-eyed junco. I also found Abert’s squirrel, mule deer, and cliff chipmunk, as well as Palmer’s penstemon, coyote tobacco, globemallow, and Plains lovegrass.
We spent the rest of the day packing up, then driving to the Grand Canyon and setting up our campsite there. After dinner, we set off to find the canyon. Given the size of the place and the millions of visitors, we were quite surprised at the lack of signage along the footpath from the campground to the Canyon. At one point, we were trying to find the trail around the back of the general store, and an employee came out, muttering somewhat in disgust, “I love how everyone just makes a path anywhere.” Well, maybe folks might stick better to the main path if they could find it. We saw mule deer at the campsite, common raven, and rock squirrel. At the Canyon, I was delighted to find some fernbush.
9/16/23. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 4 miles today, 4334.2 miles total.
This morning we set out for a slow walk along the rim heading east. We started at the Yavapai Geology Museum and walked to Mather Point and back. We had elk at our campsite. We also saw cliff chipmunk, plateau fence lizard, rock squirrel, mountain chickadee, raven, and white-breasted nuthatch along the trail. Insects were an umbrella paper wasp (dead) and a beautiful Apantesis incorrupta moth. Plants included green Ephedra, banana yucca, Mojave kingcup cactus, rock whitefeather, hoary tansyaster, Utah serviceberry, and Colorado pinyon.
After lunch at our campsite, we returned to the Rim, this time walking from the trail to the campground to Verkamp's visitors' center and back. We found western bluebird, white-breasted nuthatch, broom snakeweed, and some galls on rubber rabbitbrush.
9/17/23. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 5.3 miles today, 4339.5 miles total.
This morning my husband and I attended a ranger-led geology talk at the amphitheater near the geology museum. At the talk, we learned that the animal most likely to inflict injuries to park visitors is the rock squirrel. No surprise—those buggers may look cute to some people, but they are shameless beggars along the trail. Before we left home, we watched quite a few videos on Youtube about ravens ravaging camp sites, so we have been quite careful never to leave food or water on our table unattended. Or anything else, for that matter. Just our zipped up tent. The folks in the site behind us, however, brought a puppy, whose food dish they left out near their campfire ring. The ravens, of course, found the food immediately and then assumed that the campers meant to feed them and their entire community for the entire weekend. They completely destroyed the site, ripping bags and overturning dishes and cooking equipment this morning.
After the ranger talk, we walked the Rim trail from Verkamp's Visitors' Center to Bright Angel Trail. Plants along the way included Ponderosa pine, green Ephedra, Utah serviceberry, slender buckwheat, Utah agave, mat rock spiraea, Gambel oak, spreading fleabane, thickleaf beartongue, fetid goosefoot, New Mexico locust, fernbush, Apache plume, cowpen daisy, mountain four o’clock, hairy hawkbit, London rocket, white horehound, cutleaf nightshade, wax currant, dandelion, Palmer’s amaranth, and Colorado pinyon with mistletoe. We also saw ornate tree lizard, cliff chipmunk, White-breasted nuthatch, turkey vulture, mountain chickadee, common raven, Woodhouse’s scrub jay, and house sparrow. Insects were common checkered skipper, and a yellow shouldered drone fly. I found galls on Gambel oak and rubber rabbitbrush.
In the afternoon, my husband decided he needed a long nap at the campsite. While he napped, I toured the campground on foot, curious about whether the rest of the campground was as crowded as where we were, and what the prime campsites might be. It turns out the loop we were on is extremely popular, especially among city people who get freaked out by being in the woods. The campsites were on top of each other, with no demarcations of where one site ended and others began. Several of the outer loops were closed for paving. They were empty but had fresh tar laid, so the smell was pretty unbearable. But across the road from where we staying were some much nicer sites, further apart (yet not too far from the bathrooms). There we even some sites there that appeared to be available. I talked to the ranger in the evening, and he was able to let us change our reservation to one of those more wooded sites. What a relief! During my walk around the campground, I saw acorn woodpecker, common raven, rock squirrel, and plateau fence lizard.
9/18/23. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 2.9 miles today, 4342.4 miles total.
This morning we drove out to Desert View at the east entrance of the park. At the park gate was a ranger display with a notebook with names of the common plants in the area. I studied the notebook with great excitement, hoping to put some names on the plants I’ve been seeing. But I was dismayed to find a plant that appeared to be a goldenrod labelled as ragweed in the book. I talked to the ranger about it, and explained the difference between goldenrods and ragweed. She listened with interest, and said she would update that name in the book. From Desert View, we started driving west again back towards the campground, but stopping at each of the scenic pull-offs along the way to gaze into the canyon. Plants today included Apache plume, redroot amaranth, fernbush, rubber rabbitbrush, green ephedra, Stansbury’s cliffrose, dwarf mallow, blue grama, cheatgrass, tumbleweed, Kaibab agave, bigbract verbena, apricot mallow, velvetweed, white horehound, yellow sweetclover, Arizona thistle, California brickelbush, spiny greasebush, Utah juniper, squirreltail, ragleaf bahia, Wheeler’s thistle, velvety goldenrod, Colorado pinyon, Fendler’s sandwort, Utah serviceberry, Gambel oak, wax currant, London rocket, prickly pear cactus, and fetid goosefoot. We also saw mountain chickadee, common raven, turkey vulture, elk, plateau fence lizard, Poecilanthrax fly, Dipalta serpentina fly, honeybee, and Efferia robberfly, and I found galls on rubber rabbitbrush. In the afternoon, we were finally able to move into our new campsite, #286, a beautiful campsite with plenty of trees between us and our neighbors, yet close to the bathrooms.
9/19/23. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 2.9 miles today, 4342.4 miles total.
This morning my husband and I drove to a parking lot near the Bright Angel trailhead. We got lost trying to find our way from there to the rim, again no signs. We wandered through some of the employee housing areas searching for the rim. We had been amazed to hear the other night at a ranger talk that Grand Canyon village even has its own highschool and football team. We eventually found the rim and started walking the rim trail west from Bright Angel towards Powell Point. Plants along the trail included Douglas fir, horsetail milkweed, mountain gooseberry, mat rock spiraea, Fremont barberry, feather lovegrass, redroot amaranth, Utah agave, Bridge’s penstemon, wholeleaf paintbrush, Fremont barberry, rubber rabbitbrush, littleleaf mountain mahogany, Palmer’s amaranth, slender buckwheat, broom snakeweed, and Gambel oak. Birds were Western bluebird, pygmy nuthatch and an unfamiliar brown bird that another woman with a big camera and I were eagerly shooting. I asked her if she knew what it was, but she didn’t reply. Then I heard her companions talking in French, so we ended up having a long conversation in French, but still, neither of us knew what the bird was (it turned out to be a rock wren, a lifer for me). Other animals along the trail included rock squirrel, ornate tree lizard, American snout moth, jagged ambush bug, sedgesitter fly, and bristle fly. We took the bus back to Bright Angel Trail, then started walking to the parking lot from there. But along the way, we found a big patch of rubber rabbitbrush in full bloom with lots of pollinators. An 8-year-old boy was fascinated with a large bee that he saw. I explained to him that it was a carpenter bee, but it turned out he was Spanish speaking, so I don’t think he understood much of what I said. Still, he seemed delighted that an adult was also interested in a bee. We also saw a painted lady and a honeybee.
In the evening, my husband and I enjoyed a picnic dinner at sunset at a scenic vista along the rim trail east of Mather Point. We also watched some Woodhouse’s scrubjay and mountain chickadees.
9/20/23. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 7.8 miles today, 4350.2 miles total.
This morning my husband and I heard a rumor that we might get some rain. We don’t have any data on our phones since we don’t have service where we live in VT, and we usually depend on Wifi for data. Although all web pages said that Wifi was available at the general store in Grand Canyon Village, it wasn’t. We ended up texting a friend back in Vermont to get a weather report. Indeed, lots of rain was forecast for overnight and all the next day. Our cheap tent didn’t have a rain fly. We called our Airbnb host back in Nevada and made arrangements to arrive a day early. Then we contained our walk along the rim trail, enjoying a section from Mather Point to Yaki Point this morning. This section had been recently burned. We found four o’clocks, Macdougal verbena, Utah serviceberry, hoary tansyaster, Torrey’s milkvetch, broom snakeweed, wild buckwheat, rubber rabbitbrush, Wholeleaf paintbrush, silvery bryum moss, wax currant, black medick, redroot amaranth, tumbleweed, white horehound, lobeleaf groundsel, Colorado pinyon, Wright’s thelypody, mountain phlox, littleleaf mountain mahogany, and horsetail milkweed. We also saw a turkey vulture, cliff chipmunk, rock squirrel, and plateau fence lizard, plus a bicolored carpenter ant and termites.
In the afternoon, we enjoyed one last section of the rim trail, this time from Powell to Mohave Point on the wester part of the trail. We found galls on rubber rabbitbrush and sagebrush. Back at the general store, we saw Brewer’s blackbird, house sparrow, a thread-waisted wasp, and a honeybee.
9/22/23. Hoover Dam, Boulder City, NV. 2 miles today, 4352.2 miles total.
This morning, my husband and I took a tour of the Hoover Dam in Boulder City. At the end of the tour, we walked across the dam, were we saw a caterpillar hunter beetle, turkey vulture, house finch, double-crested cormorant, common raven, and a western whiptail lizard. The only plant of note was a desert rock nettle growing out of a hole in the wall near the parking lot entrance.
9/23/23. Owl Canyon, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boulder City, NV. 3.2 miles today, 4355.4 miles total.
This morning my husband and I set out for an early walk through Owl Canyon, hoping to beat the heat. On the map, several parking areas were marked as the trailhead for the Owl Canyon trail, so we had a few false starts. There were no actual signs to mark the trail. We finally found a trail that seemed to fit the description in the pamphlet we had collected at the visitors’ center yesterday. We soon lost the trail again when it entered a wash. We walked quite a ways down the wash before we realized we weren’t really on any trail at all. We saw a few coyote tracks in the wash, but no human tracks after a while. After about a mile, we turned around and headed back up the wash, and then discovered that the trail we had wanted crossed the wash right about where we had entered it, then went up hill, not down. After following this trail, we eventually found Owl Canyon, a scenic slot canyon, with plenty of shade. Plants today included creosote bush, desert trumpet, soft prairie clover, alkali heliotrope, Tidestromia, puncture vine, saltcedar, rough cocklebur, brittlebush, sea clubrush, desert tobacco, catclaw acacia, thickleaf groundcherry, largebract spiderling, beavertail cactus, catclaw acacia, fringed amaranth, biscuitroot, brittlebush, and desert rock nettle. Insects were included field ants, Systena gracilenta, skimmer dragonfly, dancer damselfly, spider wasp, white-lined sphinx caterpillars, Hawaiian beet webworm moth, honeybee, and pallid-winged grasshopper. We also saw some common ravens high above the canyon. Down in the wash while we were bushwhacking, we saw some Asian clams, a mule deer skeleton, Abert’s towhee, black phoebe, and a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds.
9/26/23. New Discovery State Park, Groton, VT. 3.3 miles today, 4358.7 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, birds, insects
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I drove to the North Parking Lot along Rt 232. Then I rode my scooter into the back entrance of the park to the trail head for the New Discovery Trail down to Osmore Pond. Except, this time I didn’t go to the pond, but rather explored a sidetrail that I had never walked before. The trail turned out to be a land shortcut to Remote Site 3 along the pond. Indeed, the walk from the trail down to the outhouse for the campsite was shorter than the trail to the outhouse from the site itself. Good to know, if I ever want to stay at site 3 without a boat. Today I found leafminers on goldenrod, calico aster, hazelnut, thimbleberry, and sugar maple, and galls on striped maple, blackberry, goldenrod, velvetleaf blueberry, alternate-leaved dogwood, and chokecherry. I found golden-crown kinglet, hermit thrush, dark-eyed junco, and American robin. Bugs were hard to find—I only found 2, a Podisus bug and wooly bear caterpillar (dead).
9/27/23. New Discovery State Park, Groton, VT. 2.3 miles today, 4361 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, birds, insects
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton. While he made his usual unicycle run from Marshfield Pond to Ricker Pond, I returned to New Discovery again. On my electric scooter, I found the trailhead that I had followed yesterday, but this time I turned left. Following this new-to-me trail, I eventually came out on the trail to Big Deer Mountain. I made a loop back from the Big Deer Trail through the campground. I found galls today on beech, red maple, blackberry, chokecherry, and meadowsweet, and leaf miners on wild sarsaparilla, beech, red maple, and blackberry. I also found a big pile of black bear scat filled with blackberry seeds. I’m not the only one in the woods eating those blackberries, it seems. I also found a tricolored bumblebee, bald-faced hornet, and hickory tussock moth caterpillar, plus a song sparrow, and surprise, surprise, a gray squirrel, my first gray squirrel in Caledonia County.
9/28/23. Parkway, Montpelier, VT. 0.7 miles today, 4361.7 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, insects
This afternoon I had a little bit of time to walk between errands in Montpelier. I parked along Winter St, then headed up the Parkway (the short road that leads to the park). I found galls on Norway maple, butternut, and goldenrod, and leafminers on beggarsticks, honeysuckle, goldenrod, and daylilies. I also found a honeybee (dead on the sidewalk), Phaonia fly, Asian lady beetle, and eastern yellowjacket.
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