Curious Little Snake

Northwestern Garter Snake - Thamnophis ordinoides

Saw this cute little guy on my walk back to the car after work. I scared him at first, but then after I'd laid on the sidewalk for a minute he started to be curious and check me out.

Here's a full body picture of him.

Titus Canyon, Death Valley

Grapevine Mountains

We started driving on Titus Canyon road because we noticed there was a geocache on it. What we didn't know was that Titus Canyon Road is a 27 mile long one way street leading though an incredible canyon.

My pictures really don't do the drive justice. The colors were incredible. Blues, greens reds... I really need to get a polarizing filter for my camera. While this camera does great in the Oregon rainforest, it tends to overexpose things in the sunny desert.

We should have stopped to take pictures in Red Pass, but there were already a lot of cars there so we didn't. That was the main problem with taking photos in Titus Canyon. We felt like we couldn't safely park without preventing other cars from passing.

About halfway though our drive we stopped in the ghost town of Leadfield. The sign says it all.

I wouldn't want to live here.

Sami stands in front of the mine entrance with the GPS to claim a virtual geocache find.

The old outhouse.

I dont' remember if I've seen a lizard eating plants before, but this one was. He kept nibbling on this green leaf.

We saw a butterfly here too, although it was too fas for us to get a close up.

Petroglyph near Klare Spring

Click here to see entire lizard.

Interesting Rocks

Heading back to the car after investigating the petroglyphs and wildlife.

Entering the narrows of Titus Canyon

We passed a large group of Japanese tourists hiking through this part of the the canyon. They looked very hot and tired. I wondered how far they had to hike.

Video going though the narrows.

I apologize for bad video quality and the bird poop and glare on the windshield. It does give you an idea of our drive though.

We came out of the canyon just seconds before I stopped the video. I didn't know though, so I ruined a good shot by ending it too early.

Beatty, NV

We arrived in Las Vegas late Friday night and drove to Beatty, Nevada just north of Death Valley.

We spent the night in the Stagecoach - it had good reviews online but our room was near the laundry facilities or something. Loud machine noises kept us awake, and I accidentally set the time on the alarm clock and we woke up 2 hours earlier than we intended.

Bird in a palm tree outside the Stagecoach.

There were lots of these birds in the trees and on the Stagecoach sign. They were very noisy and made strange sounds.

Beatty has it's own "B" up on the mountain, just like the Hollywood sign.

Desert Paintbrush - Castilleja chromosa

Location of our first Nevada geocache.

Shortly after leaving the hotel we stopped at this rocky area along the roadside to search for a geocache.

View from the top.

Closeup of mountain.

Mormon Tea - Ephedra torreyana

Narrow-Leaf Crypanth -
Crypantha angustifolia -
AKA White Forget-Me-Nots

Gravel Ghost - Atrichoseris platyphylla

Mostly Mushrooms

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. It happened to be right across the street from the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't resist taking a walk though the park. I found a ton of interesting mushrooms and various little critters. I wish I knew more about mushrooms. I'm sure some of these are tasty and some would probably kill me, but I have no idea which are which.

Licorice Fern in Bigleaf Maple tree

Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Acer macrophyllum

Mycena sp.

The mushroom ID book says that Mycena means mushroom in Greek.

To identify the particular species you'd have to look at this one under a microscope.

Garter Snake - Thamnophis sp.