Painted Desert Trail

These rock formations are called hoodoos and are carved by the wind. The best place to see hoodoos is Bryce Canyon National Park but its nice that there are a few here in the refuge. There is also a neat "window" rock formation just to the right of the smaller hoodoo. The painted desert trail is a nice hike that is a little over a mile long. The trail goes through lots of different colored rock, purples, pinks, greens, reds, yellows and whites which makes it beautiful.

We are almost packed up and ready to hit the road. Only three more working days. We've said goodbye to our friends at several rv parks. They are all leaving the same time we are. I'm going to miss the freezer and big oven in the volunteer kitchen. We got really spoiled having the volunteer building with the huge kitchen to use.

We've been caulking around the 5th wheel. Some of the old caulking had pulled apart. We are trying to make the rig ready for rain. We haven't been in a real rain storm since last spring. Right now we are enjoying some wind and looking at the blowing dust as far as the eye can see. Rain sounds good about now.

Refuge at Dawn

I took the picture of the clouds as the sun was coming up. We haven't had any pretty sunrises or sunsets for awhile. I think the moisture in the air made this dawn especially pretty. We got some rain this weekend --- the first moisture in a few months. Of course, any kind of weather brings wind here so we got rocked to sleep a few nights.

When everyone else sprang forward to daylight savings time we did not. Arizona doesn't recognize it. Living here on the border of the pacific time zone it makes sense since we experience the same daylight hours as California.

Friday we had our volunteer recognition luncheon. We all received nice gifts for the amount of hours we volunteered. We put in 500 hours so we qualified for a free annual national park pass. Its worth $80 because we bought one this summer and its good for any federal place that charges an entrance fee. Plus we got mugs, pins, water bottles, a small signed print of a beautifully painted bird and a book. It was very nice to be recognized for all our work this winter.

Pretty Hummers

There are hummingbird feeders outside the visitor center. They attract hummingbirds that we've never seen until coming here. These are Anna's and Black Chin Hummingbirds. There are also Costa, Allen and Broadtail sometimes flying around. The nice weather here has brought out more wildlife. The school kids come out on Thursdays for guided hikes and a Big Horn Sheep crossed right in front of them while they were on the Painted Desert hiking trail. The kids were thrilled and so were the adults. They also got to see a desert iguana that was over a foot long and a good inch and half around as well as a chuckwalla( a kind of lizard) and some zebra tail lizards.

So far no one has seen any rattlesnakes which is fine with us.

The river has gotten very busy on the weekends. High power jet boats with the music cranked loud so they can hear over the roar of the engines -- can't imagine what the river is like during the busy summer season. Its hard to believe that the river turns into a party place during the summer but many Californians come over to enjoy the water. They cruise the river and party on the sandbars. All of the resorts along the river cater to the summer crowds by offering plenty to eat and drink. During the winter the resorts cater to the snowbirds by offering quieter get togethers such as pot lucks and local country bands playing on Sunday afternoons. Its nice that they try to please both kinds of crowds.

Beavertail Blooms

The beavertail cactus are blooming all over the refuge. Jim got a shot of this cactus at one of the overlooks in the refuge. You can see a backwater of the Colorado River in the background. The blooms are the prettiest pink color. We have several rabbits around and its interesting to see what the heck they eat. They find the tiniest little greenery to eat. We've also watched them up on their hind legs stretching to eat the yellow creosote bush blossoms.

It's been warm now at night (in the 50's) for a week or so. This means the snakes will start coming out. The naturalists here on the refuge do a moonlight hike once a month on a full moon night. They are talking about cancelling the upcoming one because its been so warm. Snakes love to be out at night hunting. Scorpions get more active too as it warms up at night. If you shine a blacklight on adult scorpions they glow in the dark. It's a good way to find out if you have a scorpion problem -- shine it around your outside steps, etc and see. I tried it but so far haven't seen any out and about -- yet -- because I know at least one lives under the cement block outside our door.