My Life and Travels
We drove the 45 miles out to the North Rim today.
This monitor was on the wall in the visitor’s center. I thought it gives a good example of the effect of altitude has on tempature. The distance across the Grand Canyon is 11 miles. The south rim is 3 miles from the river and the north rim is 7 miles from the river.
These are just a selection of the pictures I took during the day.
These caterpillars are over two inches in lengh. I have no idea how the navigate or where they were coming from or were they think they were going. This is in the middle of the open area they call a campground.
We drove over to the Borax Works
Death Valley also has some unique fish Pupfish.
Also visited the Painted Valley
Today we went to the high point inside Death Valley and low point, Badwater.
We also drove out to Devil’s Golf Course.
Today we drove north again heading toward “The Race Track”. This is where under the right conditions rocks move across the ground by themselves.
The sign as you leave the paved road has a picture of a little 4X4 Jeep, and they mean it. It is 27 miles to the Race Track so that make it a 54 mile trip. The “road” is a jeep road with lots a axle braking rocks, soft sand and loose rocks, the kind of road you have to drive every foot. After 45 minutes and 7 miles we decided it would be wise to turn around and head back. It took another 1.5 miles before I found a place in the road I wanted to turn around. The road way is not very wide with all the deep loose rocks I didn’t want to get stuck trying to turn around. Having both the front and back wheels in this loose rock at the same time did not seem like a good idea.
On our first day in Death Valley we decided to go north.
Drove across one of the high valleys in Death Valley.
Ended up at a Father Crowley lookout point which is over a canyon the Air Force uses to practice flying.
This shows how steep the canyon is in this area.
We stood on the edge and watch several planes fly along the valley. A fighter and a C130.
Here are some pictures of the fighter.
The C130
We stayed and watched 3 fighters and one C130, it was getting to be lunch time so I figured they were all on their way back home to get something to eat.
Today was travel day to Zion National Park for two week. It is really a beautiful place.
On the way we made three stops, Lowes, Safelite Auto Glass and Walmart. Lowes was to look at microwave ovens the microwave convection oven was acting up for a week or so my not working, we threatened it and has worked for the past week. If it quits again it’s gone. Safelite to get a motorhome window chip fixed and Walmart for groceries.
Watchman campground.
We are in site B44 for the next two weeks.
This picture was taken with my Ipad, not a bad picture.
We went looking for a post office and then to the Saguaro National Park visitors center.
Thought this was an interesting sign posted next to the drinking fountain.
This egg is attached to the side of a saguaro inside the spins, very well protected.
Like I have heard before, everything in the desert wants to hurt you.
Today we went to the caverns and bat show. This time I walked from the caverns up the natural entrance and Jean walked around the big room.
We went to the bat show it was very different this time. We learn a lot of numbers and only saw a few bats. The bat show started at 5:30 p.m. and the bats did not start out until 6:40 p.m. They came out of the caverns just clearing the top edge of the opening and they all headed southeast. It was pretty dark by 6:50 and by 7:00 we could not see any bats however we could still hear them.
We did get a lot of numbers:
793,000 most bats counted during a 2005 bat count
64,000 least counted that year
This year most of the bats left during July, very dry month at Carlsbad and the bats went other places, however they have returned.
They can fly to 10,000 feet, they go to this elevation because the moth they eat will go this high.
Come out of the caverns at a rate of 10-12,000 a minute.
Fly at 25-30 miles per hour
Can live up to 25 years.
Another day at Carlsbad Caverns, walked down into the caverns and then around the Big Room.
This gives some idea about size, see the person’s head in the lower left.
This is a reflection in a pool of water.
