April 2009

    Itinerary:
    Joshua Tree National Park
    Salton Sea Recreation Area & Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge
    Anza Borrego State Park
    Coachella Valley Preserve
    Big Morongo Canyon Nature Preserve
    Mojave National Preserve

| Synopsis | Pictures | Bird/Critter Lists | Information |

Synopsis

Tuesday April 14th: Travel to Mojave Preserve 

    Although Anza Borrego was a beautiful park that had much to offer, we felt it was time to move on to the Mojave National Preserve. It has several things going for it that Anza Borrego doesn’t. Number 1 is that it gets overlooked. With Anza Borrego being so close to two major cities (San Diego and Los Angeles), it gets a lot of use (as we’ve witnessed) during holidays and vacations. The closest city to the Preserve is Las Vegas and lets face it people going to Las Vegas probably aren’t looking to spend their days out in the desert without a cold drink in hand and a soft cushion for their soft seat to be comfortable in front of a slot machine for the day. And those willing to venture from the “safety” of the Strip will likely go to Death Valley or Red Rock, which get more press than the Preserve. So I was happy to be heading to the humble and familiar Preserve. 

    On the way north, we stopped at Coachella Valley Nature Preserve – the last place for the endemic Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard. And driving up to it, it was pretty obvious why. On one side of the street was the sand dunes, habitat for the fringe-toeds, on the other side houses, subdivisions, golf carts, lawns, pesticides, people, pavement, more houses etc. 

    At the nature preserve, we walked around the well-traveled paths to the McCallum Pond. Several pupfish were released in the pond, I think as a Noah’s ark type project. Got to save those little buggers too. We didn’t see any fringe-toed lizards while walked some of the trails, but we saw several desert iguanas and zebratails. Bird activity was kept to the typical desert birds – Gambel’s Quails, White-crowned Sparrows, Black-throated Sparrow, Northern Mockingbird, and Cactus Wren. Still it was nice seeing the habitat of the fringe-toed lizards being preserved and that the public seemed to use and perhaps appreciated their efforts. 

    We continued northward and stopped at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in Morongo Valley – a surprising gem of the BLM that has been and is well taken care of. We walked the boardwalk trails through the riparian and marshlands. The host of the preserve was kind enough to show us the nesting Long-eared Owl. We could see one young down-covered owl nestled up to mom. Unfortunately the young was tucked away under mom before we could snap a picture. 

    We had lunch at the adjacent Covington Park, where we watched several Vermillion Flycatchers and a nesting pair of Western Bluebirds. After lunch we hit the road continuing our way to the Mojave Preserve. 

    After only a couple of hours on the road, we arrived at the Preserve and turned onto the dirt road toward the campsite by the UC’s research station. Thankfully we found the site vacant and set up our tent to make it clear to others that we were there to stay. Not more than an hour later, another car arrived and circled around the roads. My heart sank, but I was relieved when they waved and continued on down another road. We would have the site for the next three nights by ourselves. 

    When we were settled in we took an evening walk in the desert. The wind began to pick up more and there were considerable gusts that chilled me thoroughly. At 8’o clock I was wearing my fleece beanie, fleece jacket and outer rain jacket. The wind whipped through continuously. An occasional strong gust practically flattened our tent. There would be no sleeping in the bed of the truck tonight. We guyed the rainfly down, so the tent would not get flattened. I repositioned the truck as an attempted wind block for the tent. By the time we got into the tent, a fine dusting of sand coated everything inside. 

    That night the wind pounded the tent. It was amazing that I was able to get some sleep even though the nylon tent bowed and flexed, the corners of the tent flapped loudly, and the clouds of sand pelted the tent. Even though I was worn out to a point of exhaustion, the wind showed no sign of tiring out. 

Wednesday April 15th: Mojave Preserve - Cottonwood springs 

    Exhausted from the night’s wind, we slept in. We also weren’t eager to get up because the wind still continued to rush around us. My bladder couldn’t take sleeping in any longer. We arose to assess the damage and see if we could warm up for the day. During the night I had visions of waking up to find the tent half way buried in sand, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. Everything in the tent, however, was coated in fine powdery sand – this included any part of our bodies that was exposed to the air. 

    As we attempted to clean our faces and warm up, we listened to the radio hoping to catch the forecast. We never heard one, so decided the best way to get warmed up was to start hiking around. So we set out for Cottonwood Springs. 

    During the day, I zipped and unzipped my jacket, switched from beanie to bandana, and went from shivering to sweating. When the wind wasn’t blowing it was pleasant and warm. With the wind, however, the temperature quickly dropped. At least the wind during the day wasn’t as continuous as the night before. 

    At Cottonwood Springs, we noticed immediately that the hydrology had changed. The spring emerged lower than usual and the pond near the cottonwoods tree was absent. As a result the cottonwood trees looked worse for wear, and I wondered if this change meant this was the end of the cottonwood trees. 

    The bird activity around the spring was not less than usual. Out of the past four visits to the springs over eight years, I have seen two uncommon/rare birds on two of the visits. One was a rare Northern Parula and the other was an uncommon Lawrence’s Goldfinch. I know I shouldn’t start expecting the unexpected at Cottonwood Springs, but after the latest visit I just might have to. While inspecting the springs, I spooked a Long-eared Owl out of its roost in a juniper tree. Before I could back off it took flight and disappeared beyond the cottonwood trees. The Long-eared Owl is a treat to see, but not unusual for the Preserve. However, not more than five minutes of seeing the owl, I heard an unfamiliar call from above us, up the mountainside. I saw what I dismiss as a Turkey Vulture wobbling over the rocky mountainside. However, the call led me to further inspection. Through my binoculars I saw a white band on the black tail feathers – it was a Zone-tailed Hawk! It continued to circle in its deep dihedral and wobble like a Turkey Vulture. Eventually it disappeared continuing along the mountains. This hawk was far from it usual range in the southwest. Perhaps it was blown in by last night’s wind! It was probably as disorientated as we were after the windstorm. 

    After hanging around Cottonwood Springs a little longer and watching the dark clouds roll by to the east, we headed out to the spring in the middle of the wash. Having not been there for three years, we took a while to find the springs, we ended up overshooting the springs by quite a bit, and going through washes in dense brush was pretty slow. When we finally reached the spring, the blue sky was gone, covered by a giant gray cloud. 

    We wandered up and down the spring for a bit, looking for tadpoles, which were absent likely because it was still too cold (!). As I was cooking lunch, I noticed something falling out of the corner of my eye. I thought maybe the wind had blown in some seeds, but then Tor exclaimed, “snow!” And pretty soon, we were eating lunch in a steady curtain of snow. The snow didn’t last long and soon the clouds were slowly breaking up again. 

    By the time we were back at our campsite the large blanket of clouds had broken up into large puffy white clouds against the blue sky. The car that had driven by the previous day was parked near our campsite and no one was around. I assumed they were out hiking. 

    We spent the afternoon hiking the roads nearby and returned to the campsite where the other car was still parked. We began to unwind for the evening, when the owners of the car returned. They had climbed up to one of the peaks. They were returning from a party in Arizona and were climbing peaks on the way home to San Diego. The couple was very nice and interesting, and they had actually restored my faith Californians and some people in general. Not everyone is a clueless, inconsiderate, self-center idiot! 

    After they left, we had dinner. We went for an evening stroll up to the old mining camp and springs nearby. Morning doves cooed, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers chattered from the mesquite. Above us Chukars chucked loudly, unseen among the rocky mountainside. 

    As the sun sank behind the mountains and the winds started, I was preparing myself mentally for the winds to start and to be hunkered down in a tent. But Tor talked me into trying to sleep in the bed of the truck. We lasted about 15 minutes in the bed of the truck before retreating back to the tent. We tired, but the windy night had dictated otherwise. 

Thursday April 16th: Mojave Preserve - Twin & Coyote Springs 

    The next morning was actually fairly calm and we set out to hike down to Twin and Coyote Springs. The weather was pretty decent compared to the previous day. It was warm with the occasional breeze that cooled us down – good weather for hiking especially in a desert. 

    On the way to the springs, we heard the calls of three separate groups of fledgling Northern Shrikes. When we would approach, the mother and fledglings would start calling out. The mother would start calling out then fly away, the fledgling with their down still showing would call in response. Finally they would follow suit to rejoin their mother. Of the three families, one family had three fledgling shrikes and the other two had one fledgling. 

    Before reaching Twin Springs, we saw the side canyon to a spring we visited on our last trip. It was tough finding a trail on the steep canyon side and the wash was too brushy to walk up. When we finally reached the small spring, we were surprised to find it mostly filled in with plants and no open water was present. 

    We made our way back down the canyon and continued down the road toward Twin Springs. The spring was flowing with water and we found many toad eggs and toadpoles. These toadpoles would be well fed as the pools of water were choked with algae. 

    On to Coyote springs, an American Robin flew out of the creosote bush over our heads. This environment was far from what I usual associate this lawn loving bird with. Maybe it got blown in from the windstorm as well. 

    At Coyote springs, I was surprised to find it dry except for a little pool of water among the rocks. In past years, it was flowing for a good distance. Perhaps it indicated another change in hydrology or climate change or just a fluke year. We enjoyed lunch on a large bolder with a good view of the canyon. A pair of Say’s Phoebes called loudly – seemingly taking advantage of the good acoustics of the rocky walls. A Bewick’s Wren sang loudly above us, and a father House Finch tried to satiate a perpetually begging fledgling. 

    After lunch, we hiked up the old mining road. As Tor was investigating some rocks that I saw a lizard run toward, I heard an unusual call from above us. I looked up toward several Common Ravens that were flying over the mountaintop, but the call continued in a direction away from the ravens. I looked up toward the hill directly above us and saw a Big Horn Sheep looking down at as and muttering, “bah, bah.” It watched us with great intensity and interest. We missed the Big Horns in Anza Borrego, so we were extremely happy to finally see one in the Preserve. The sheep that watched us was alone, perhaps a very young ram. 

    We moved on slowly and the sheep turned and left the area. Our attention was turned to the old mine shaft. At the mouth of the mine, a Say’s Phoebe had built a nest in one of the rock crevices. We took out our headlamps and investigated the mine. It was solid rock all the way around and must have taken a lot of dynamite to create. It went straight back into the hillside and many little piles of droppings littered the floor, perhaps from a bat that roosted there in the summer. At the back of the cave, we noticed movement and saw a deer mouse with four or five young holding on to mom’s rear with their mouths. Whenever mom would scurry, the young would scurry along with her, attached to her rear. Their nest was also at the back of the cave – a nice cup made of dry grass decorated with old droppings (coyote maybe?). We left the mice and phoebe in peace to attend to their families and returned down the mining road. 

    The hike back to camp was quiet and uneventful, which was good considering the other times we’ve made that hike: once when we were getting away from an approaching storm and another occasion when I almost had heat stroke. We did pass the group of three fledgling shrikes again. They fired up calling and flew away as if offended as we passed. 

    During the evening, the wind never approached wind speeds comparable to the first night at the Preserve so we slept in the bed of the truck. Under the open sky, we looked at the stars, spotted space junk, and even saw a few falling stars. It was still cold and took a while for me to get warm and toasty in my sleeping bag, but I slept pretty well through the night. 

Friday April 17th: Mojave Preserve - Hole in the Wall, Lava Tube 

    The day before we had decided that we would spend the last night at a hotel. It took much debate and consideration, but we finally made the mental leap that we were going to a hotel. On one hand we were camping and felt it would be cheating to stay in a hotel (hotel guilt), but on the other hand we camped in a wind/sand storm and hadn’t showered for five days. If the TSA didn’t hold us back, then the air marshal might have his say when he saw the two of us step on the plane. 

    So we packed up all our camping gear in the morning and tried to organize our bags the best we could so we didn’t have to repack all our gear at the hotel. We planned to spend as much of the day at the Preserve and spend only showering and sleeping time at the hotel. We both didn’t have much of any interest in gambling or spending a beautiful day in a cavernous room with blinking lights. 

    It was a beautiful day too. The wind finally gave it a rest and it actually began to warm up in the morning. We said our farewells to our campsite and headed down the road to the Kelso Dunes. At the dunes, we sat in the cool sand, ate our breakfast, and watched a person try to hike to the peak of the dune. Well all we could see was a black dot against the sand, but we watched as his progression suddenly slowed when he reached the ridge of the dune. He was still a good distance away from the peak before he turned around and headed back down. In the meantime, we wandered around the dunes looking at the many critter prints in the sand. I could only imagine how the dunes looked during the windstorm. Talk about a sand storm! One would have to wear serious protective gear in order to be out there in the dunes during a sand storm. On the way back to the car, we saw a Mojave fridge-toed lizard. He was a little slow, likely just getting warmed up for the day. 

    Our next stop was the Kelso Depot visitor center. We needed ideas of what to do in the preserve for the entire day so I convinced Tor to watch the 10-minute video on the Preserve. It was a little cheesy, but we decided to go to Hole in the Wall and to the Lava Tube. 

    After looking around the visitor center for a little while longer, we headed out to Hole in the Wall. At the visitor center for Hole in the Wall, the parking lot was pretty empty. We took the ring loop trail from the visitor center parking lot. It went around the mesa and by some rocks with petroglyphs that were thankfully not graffittied over. Above the mesa, an American Kestrel was very vocal, perhaps trying to impress a lady or claiming his little corner of the desert. The trail eventually turned toward the canyon walls and we could see why Hole in the Wall got its name. More appropriately, it should have been named Holes in the Wall. The holes were formed from gas bubbles trapped during volcanic activity. The canyon walls harden and the gas bubbles left holes. It was beautiful and hard to capture on the camera. 

    While hiking toward the canyon, I noticed a large lizard scamper underneath a boulder. The chuckwalla began to lick the boulder under the rock – I’m not really sure why maybe to get minerals or it just ate a bad tasting bug and wanted to get the taste off its tongue. 

    The trail entered Banshee canyon, and soon we were at the first set of rings to help us climb up a narrow and steep part of the canyon. After the two sets of rings and a short climb out of the canyon, we found ourselves… in a parking lot. Kind of anti-climatic, but at least the journey was good. From the parking lot, we were able to access the platform, which overlooked part of the canyon below and to see the official Hole in the Wall – a large hole in the wall on the top of the canyon. 

    We walked back down the road to the visitor center parking lot, where we started. We were glad that we had started there instead of at the parking lot above. 

    For lunch we stopped at the Mitchell Caverns State Park. It was well afternoon at this point so the birding activity was restricted to a large flock lesser goldfinches that stayed close to the bird fountain. We walked the short nature trail admiring the blooming grizzly bear cactus and the oddities of the pancake cactus. 

    Having not seen the section of the Mojave Preserve and wanting to see the world’s densest stands of Joshua trees, we drove up the eastern road of the Preserve. It was a rather long drive that was full of Joshua trees across the landscape, but the trees were not as tall as some of the ones at Joshua Tree NP. Still it was a beautiful drive through the desert. 

    We looped back past the Kelso Depot and headed up to the lava tube, which for its uniqueness was not well marked from the main road. By early evening we arrived at the lava tube and much to our delight to enjoy to ourselves. No one else was there. We took the short hike out to the lava tube and descended the stairs into the tube. A Say’s Phoebe flew around the entrance of the lava tube probably frustrated at us for getting to close to her nest, which was tuck in the lava tube wall. There were even young chicks not more than a week old in the nest. With headlamps on, we descended farther into the tube. A roosting Townsend’s long-eared bat was roosting near the entrance of the lava tube as well. We had to duck under the low ceiling of the lava tube to reach a larger cavern. The cavern was illuminated by two large holes in the ceiling of the lava tube. We could see that many pack rats had made use of the dark crevices in the lava tube. The lava tube floor was covered with a very find dust. I wondered how likely it would be if we contracted the hantavirus during our trip – between the mining shaft and the lava tube… well I didn’t want to think about it too much. 

    The walls of the lava tube had an interesting texture, ranging from melted chocolate to the stiff peaks of a meringue pie (you can tell I was hungry when I was in the lava tube). 

    We got back to the car just as another couple was about to set out to the lava tube. We drove off into the sunset toward Big Boy (formerly Bun Boy) Restaurant in Baker. We had dinner that was fulfilling but not spectacular and hit the highway toward Las Vegas in search of a hotel for the night. 

    It seemed like everybody else was headed toward Vegas as well that Friday night. The traffic stretched out in a river of red and while light before us in the desert. We stopped just past the Nevada/California border in Primm to find a hotel. We stopped in one of the casinos, and after being told there were no rooms for the night by the receptionist with a tone of, “duh, it’s so obvious,” we continued down the highway forgoing the trouble of trying the other casinos at that town (and I use the term town loosely, because any place only consisting of three big casino/hotels and two mega gas stations with over 20 pumps isn’t really a town). 

    By the time we reached the next exit with a casino, we were still confused as to how to tell if a hotel casino was full (there were no “no vacancy” signs out front, but maybe amid all the glitz of the lights we were distracted). I was hesitant to stop at the casino – instead imaging us sleeping in the truck on BLM land in the desert – I was ready to give up the shower and just let others around us in the plane suffer. But we stopped at the Gold Strike Casino. And luck for us the skeevy casino and hotel was aimed more toward the traveling trucker not the vacationing family, so they had rooms. Not great rooms, but rooms with a shower (that eventually got hot) and a bed. At least, we would be clean in a dirty room for the night. 

Saturday April 18th: Travel home 

    I was looking forward to getting home, even though it meant going back to work. We’d seen and learned about some new and cool things in the Colorado and Mojave deserts. It was great to see new places and visit familiar places. Overall it was a great trip that fulfilled a lot of wishes, yet left enough of an unknown to desire more in the future.

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Pictures

	Coachella Valley Preserve, CA
	Desert Iguana, Coachella Valley Preserve, CA

Zebra-tailed Lizard, Coachella Valley Preserve, CA

Long-eared Owl on nest and chicks, Big Morongo Canyon Nature Preserve, CA

	Desert Lavender, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Yucca flower, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	White-tailed Antelope Squirrel making a getaway with a ham, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Dusting of fine sand over everything after the windstorm, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Mojave Mound Cactus, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Snow!, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Wallace's Eriophyllum, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Desert Rhubarb, Mojave National Preserve, CA

Barrel Cactus, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Toad eggs at Twin Springs, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Big Horn Sheep, near Coyote Canyon, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Old mine shaft, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Deer mouse and young, old mine shaft, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Deer mouse nest, old mine shaft, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Lilac Sunbonnet, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Critter tracks, Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Quail and lizard (left) tracks, Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Coyote tracks, Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard, Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Petroglyph, Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Chuckwalla, Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Ring Loop trail, Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Hole in the Wall, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Grizzly Bear Cactus, Mitchell Caverns State Park
	Grizzly Bear Cactus, Mitchell Caverns State Park
	Joshua Trees, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Dead (Devil's) Cactus, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Joshua Trees, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Say's Pheobe nest, Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Townsend's long-eared bat, Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA

	Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Lava tube, Mojave National Preserve, CA
	Cinder cone, Mojave National Preserve, CA

Back to Part I of Colorado and Mojave Deserts 09 Trip