MYSTERY MUDBALLS DISCOVERED IN DEATH VALLEY!

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Desert, Hiking, Travel

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Death Valley, Death Valley wash, discovery, hiking, mudballs, nature

Mystery mudballs

WE SPENT OUR LAST DEATH VALLEY DAYS AT MESQUITE SPRINGS campground, at the north end of DVNP. Just a few miles south of Ubehebe Crater, it is easy to walk the wash as far as your legs will last. On our first afternoon at Mesquite Springs, my friend Lynn and I walked south in the wash. The wash was caked with thick, cracked and dried mud. This was the third week of January, and we had not encountered any rain so far, so there was no telling when the last real rain event occurred.

Little meatball sized mudballs stuck in place

About ten minutes into our walk, we started seeing little balls of mud, “stuck in the mud”! Very curious sight. As we walked farther south and downslope from the campground we found ever larger balls. It was thrilling to see them and then try to figure out their origins. Forty minutes on, we started seeing balls nearly the size and weight of bowling balls!

This was our fourth winter trip to DVNP and we had never seen anything like this. We tried to imagine the force and volume of water needed to create and propelled these balls. And, how far had they traveled to gain such size? They sort of resemble dorodango dirt balls, without the smooth finish. These were brittle, with cobble embedded. We broke open some of the smaller ones, thinking that there might be a central pebble but found none.

Mudball in hand for scale

A couple of days later the four of us took a wonderful hike above the wash to the west and south of the campground and ended up a little farther south than our initial discovery. Plus, Lynn and I had to show off our discovery. You can see from the photo how large some of the are. Amazing!

When we all parted ways, us home to the north and our friends continuing on south, they stopped in at the Furnace Creek visitor center and asked if anyone had seen this phenomenon previously. The rangers said they had not, but were excited to hear about them and see Lynn’s photos and planned to have someone go and take a look. So far, no word from the rangers. The mystery remains.

SEVEN WEEKS – 5 DAYS – 9,720 MILES

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Camping, Summer!, Travel

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Acadia National Park, Badlands National Park, black hills south dakota, camping, lobsters, Mt Rushmore, Niagra Falls, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, vacation

Quoddy Point, Maine–the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise

WE DID IT. WE LEFT SEATTLE ON JUNE 1st BOUND FOR MAINE. We finished our trip in Winthrop, Washington at the 25th Annual Winthrop Blues Festival and returned home on July 23rd. We traveled east through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and into Maine. On the return trip we tracked south through Maine to Massachusetts, turning back west into New York and along the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Huron then into Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. We camped along four of the five Great Lakes; two National Parks, one National Lakeshore, state parks, and National Forests. We saw well known attractions and some not so well known–at least not to us! We hiked in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Adirondacks (and kayaked), and the White Mountains of New Hampshire; we biked some carriage roads in Acadia National Park and kayaked on Lake Superior. An amazing, great trip.

A few highlights below. (photos for first leg of the trip at Flickr. I’ll update in a few days with more photos.)

Zoomed in on the Bear’s Tooth, seen from 10,000 ft along the Beartooth Highway, Wyoming

Mt. Rushomore National Monument, Black Hills, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Niagra Falls, New York

A swallowtail at Seventh Lake in the Adirondak Mtns. in New York

I tried out my new Sony A57 with my old Minolta lenses and caught this butterfly. I shot over 1200 photos with the new Sony, a Nikon Coolpix S9100 point and shoot and an iPhone – I’m a shooting fool! I’ve whittled that number down to less than half. It was fun to shoot with the phone camera and share in real time with family and friends.

A quirky roadside invitation to dine

The church where the signal was given for ‘One if by land, two if by sea’ in Boston. We followed the history of the American Revolution along the freedom trail through Boston, beginning at Boston Common.

Foggy morning on Cobscook Sound, Downeast Maine

Dinner on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Now that’s some kind of great camping! We bought fresh lobsters direct from the fisherman on two occasions. Turns out lobsters are in plentiful supply this year.

A small segment of the 48 miles of carriage roads built by John Rockefeller, Jr. on Mount Desert Island, Maine, now part of Acadia NP.

Two residents of the park

Grand Marais dune, Lake Superior, Michigan

We paddled through this arch on Lake Superior, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly warm.

The supposed geographic center of North America (not really).

The spectacular raging water of the Kootenai River at Kootenai Falls, east of Libby, Montana. Awesome!

Big thunderstorm about to move through on the first day of the Winthrop Blues Festival. Weather cleared before the first act went on that evening. But tents and awnings were flying! Home three days later. Then back to the business of canning and gardening. (More on that in a few days.)

SOME WINTER SUNSHINE

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Cameras, Desert, Flowers, Travel, Winter

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clematis, crocus, Death Valley, hamamelis, hellebores, railroad locomotive, sunshine, Travel, winter cyclamen, winter flowers

Hiking above Texas Spring campground, Death Valley

WE TOOK A BREAK IN JANUARY IN SEARCH OF SUNSHINE and warmth. It’s hard to believe it has been more than two months since the last post! And now I’ve gotten out of the blogging habit. So time to do some catching up. We spent a total of eleven days in Death Valley over two visits, and explored some old and new territory in Arizona and California. We took ten great hikes in 30 days and plenty of short walks too. So much to see and explore…

Los Banos Reservoir walk

I’m not used to thinking of my phone as a camera, but on this trip I tried to use it as well as the point and shoot. Mixed results with the phone camera; this photo was taken at Los Banos Creek Reservoir St. Park (California) turned out pretty well. This was our first time here and we were the first visitors of the year!

Front of Death Valley railroad locomotive

I had forgotten to bring the regular camera when we walked through the Death Valley museum so used the opportunity to take some ‘arty’ photos with the phone.

Big logging wagon wheels

I managed to take more than 700! photos in 32 days and still have a lot of culling to do. Will post more later.

WHILE WE WERE AWAY the winter blooming clematis that we planted in 2010 began blooming in earnest. Masses of blooms and still blooming!

Clematis cirrohsa

Everywhere around the garden the drive to spring is in full swing.

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane"

A yellow variety of hamamelis x intermedia

WINTER’S SENTINELS. I like to think of crocus this way. A bridge between winter and spring. Some are sunny and cheerful, others taller and stately and in a range of colors.

Giant crocus–purple 'Pickwick' with white 'Peter Pan'.

These giant crocus are quite tall at four-five inches tall. Good multipliers, not too vigorous.

HELLEBORES! These cheerful, nodding flowers also show up in many color variations. White, pink, pale yellow, maroon, green, and nearly black. They tend to be free hybridizers so offspring can be a surprise.

An unnamed, lovely pale yellow specimen

Pink ones from Grandma T's garden

Another dark pink/red variation.

We have lots of sun over the last few days, so I’ve tried to take advantage of the naturally backlit petals.

Dried seedheads of eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmot's Ghost".

Even the dried seedheads of long ago bloomed perennials have interest through the winter garden season.

Lichens on ribes sanguineum.

Even the bare branches and trunks of shrubs and trees can be beautiful with the icy, glaucous color of these fluffy lichens and spots of mustard colored ones too with counterpoints of swelling buds of this native flowering red currant.

And to end this sunny day post parade are winter blooming cyclamen. I never tire of their dainty disposition.

winter blooming cyclamen

A LITTLE TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS

07 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Birding, Travel

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Tags

bead art, beetles, birds, butterflies, Halloween, moths, New Orlean, New Orleans

THIS IS OUR FAVORITE CITY IN THE U.S. The groundskeeper was attending a conference and it happened to be over the Halloween weekend, so I tagged along.

We had never visited during Halloween. Lots of homes decorated for the occasion throughout the city. Some simply, others quite elaborately. This one is in the Garden District.

This one was at the corner of Chartres & Barracks, next to our hotel.

On Saturday night and Halloween night costumed revelers roamed the French Quarter, particularly on crazy Bourbon St. and along Frenchmen St. in theFaubourg-Marigny area. Unfortunately just as Halloween closed out and the clock turned over into Tuesday there was a shooting on Bourbon St.; one person killed and seven wounded. Scary.

As seen above, everyone is welcome on Bourbon Street. My guess is that not too many souls were saved this night.

On Monday, I met some friends in the Garden District where we walked Magazine Street; lots of upscale and junk shops, eateries, antiques stores, and assorted art. We discovered this very interesting the artist Stephán Wanger, in his studio. He creates New Orleans themed works of art with discarded Mardi Gras beads. This photo is a small section of a very large painting. He begins with an underpainting then covers it with beads. Very impressive.

Once the conference ended we took a day trip, south to Grand Isle to do a little birding. We saw 19 species of birds. Most notable were the Black Skimmers, Tri-colored Heron, and Reddish Egrets. The following day we drove to the Atchafalaya NWR hoping to see more bird species. Slimmer pickings here. New to us were the Carolina Wren and Eastern Phoebe.

We also saw some other ‘wildlife’, like this butterfly who was resting in leaf litter right next to…

this small snake!

Underfoot throughout the forest trail were tiny wild strawberries unlike any I’ve seen. I have not been able to identify this fragaria. According to the USDA plant database map there are no wild strawberries in Louisiana. They are about the size of a shirt button!

On our last day in New Orleans we visited the Audubon Insectarium. One room was dedicated to beetles, butterflies, and moths, arranged in arresting displays.

Beetles, moths and butterflies.

We always try to find something new to see and explore on each visit and this was new and interesting. We heard some great music on Frenchmen Street, at Vaso, and at the Balcony Music Club on Decatur Street. We ate some great food at Emeril’s on Julia & Tchoupitoulas and at Slyvain, a new restaurant on Chartres Street. We had wonderfully warm weather, saw and did a few new things, a few old standbys, and were ready to come home on Saturday.

STEPPING INTO THE PAINTING

20 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in National Parks, Sunset, Travel

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Gros Ventre River, hiking, moose, sunsets, Taggart Lake, tetons

WE HAD A GRAND TIME IN GRAND TETON N.P. We could see the Tetons from our campsite and watched them light up mornings and evenings. The yellow leaves of the aspens and cottonwoods were absolutely luminous. The evening light just after sunset was ethereal; soft and gauzy with hints of lavender. I felt like I was sitting in a Thomas Moran painting. Just have to share a few photos.

The campground is alongside the Gros Ventre River (grow-vant) where we walked in the mornings looking for moose–along with dozens of photographers as it turned out. Our first morning out we got lucky–twice.

The first encounter was a young bull moose who looked to be bedding down for the morning.

Farther on, out at the river we spotted a full grown bull standing in the water.

As we slowly and quietly moved in a little closer we found a glut of photographers, some of whom had just witnessed a fight between this bull and another. This challenger was apparently soothing his wounds. We saw the dominant bull a couple of days later; he had broken part of his antlers in the scuffle.

One afternoon we took a hike up to Taggart Lake at the base of the Tetons. I don’t think that a hike gets much better than this.

Taggart Lake, payoff number two!

Back at the Gros Ventre campground with late afternoon shadows adding a little more drama to the scenery.

And the setting sun. It was so beautiful, made for painting.

When we were in Yellowstone we met some friends quite by accident and they joined up with us in Teton NP. On our last full day in the park we all did a hike around Two Ocean Lake. It seems that there is nowhere in the park where the Tetons are not visible. We even saw a group of three otters fishing in the lake! A wonderful way to end our trip.