Rocky Mountain Views--Early Spring Edition

It's early spring in this part of the Rocky Mountains. Every few days we get a very light dusting of snow that does not stick but keeps the mountaintops white. The aspens and cottonwood trees are just beginning to leaf out so the forests have a haze of light green leaves adorning the landscape. The streams was swollen with muddy water. The ground is soggy. 

The skies are changeable. Some days we have our famous bluebird blue skies, other days they are gray and ominous. Yesterday we had the "ominous" variety, but a storm never came and it was 71 degrees!

The newly leafed trees are getting "dressed" for summer. The cottonwoods are near a stream, while the aspens cling to the sides of the mountain.

A muted sky with aspen trees amid the conifers. It's a pretty time of year as things are beginning to wake up. 

Most mountaintops are still snow-covered, but the snow will melt soon...

...and the fields will get greener. May is the time to enjoy the change of the season in the Rocky Mountains.

 

In a Real Kitchen

 Don't get me wrong, our fifth wheel trailer has a real kitchen but it's small. It has a three burner stove, a microwave/convection oven and a regular oven. There's a large island for food prep as well as a 12 cubic foot refrigerator. However, a trailer is different from a house; and we're in our home right now. To that end, I've been enjoying cooking again. I've made some veal parmesan; a yummy short rib stew and tonight I made focaccia

We call it pizza (much easier to spell)

Snow in May

 Guess what? It snows in May in the Rocky Mountains! 

Highest temp we've had is 56 degrees...after 102 in the desert, it's a big change.

In the Tetons

We visited my favorite mountain in the world this weekend. This is Mt. Moran and the Oxbows...and if you been following my page for any amount of time, you will see countless photos of this scene taken at different times of the year or day or hour. This is the place where my soul lives and it does not get any better than that.

A "boutique" mountain range, the Grand Tetons, do not compare with the huge mountains you find in Switzerland, but they have a special beauty all their own.

And, I yearn to be here when I'm away. And when I'm nearby, I need to take weekly visits and bathe in their wonder. 

In The Mountains

 On my last entry, I posted a picture that indicated the temperature was over 100 degrees. Today, heat is not the issue, cold is!

The mountains in western WY are covered in snow and the temps are in the low to mid-50s during the day and falling below freezing at night.

The difference is the elevation. Eastern Nevada is at 1600 ft. and Western Wyoming is 6350 ft. The desert country of Eastern Nevada is entering summer, while the Rocky Mountains are entering spring. The aspens are bare, the grasses are brown, and due to the snow melt, there is a lot of mud.

Our poor truck is testament to the mud. That is supposed to be a white truck--mud season is upon us. 

 

Moving On

Tomorrow we're going to pull up the "landing gear" and head for our summer home. It's timely too, because it's over 100 degrees right now.

That picture was taken at 2:09 PM and a few minutes later it was 102. That's warm for the last day in April, but this is the Mojave Desert.

We took a long look at the house site

...and then we talked to our Project Manager who drove into our street. Needless to say I had to talk to him.

We are number 65 on the list of 147. It's going to take awhile

..for the build to be completed.

The Project Manager looked for a "re-spin" (the estimate for close of escrow) date and he said the first close of escrow was estimated to be June 24, and a second more realistic close has not been developed yet.  We both concluded that the house could not be finished by the end of June. I asked if we would be in for Christmas, and he said it's possible, but I'm not saying anything decisive now. So we'll leave the hot sunny days of the Virgin River Valley and head to the cooler sunny days of the Salt River Valley. The adventure continues.

Non-Political Elephants

One of my favorite sources for crochet patterns is Pinterest. The problem with Pinterest is people send in pictures and patterns from all over the world...and the patterns are written in languages I do not understand. Sometimes they are linked to a video and even though the commentary is in Klingon I can understand the moves. Such is the not the case with my latest critter--an elephant.

This is my inspiration. The pattern is not available and there is no video to help me out.

 Given the above, this is what I've developed.

Each is a little different, but the idea is close. I have figured out the trunk and the body, but the ears are proving to be difficult. I'm still trying, as I'd like to add a little elephant to my crocheted zoo. Watch this space to see the next iteration.

Desert Plants and Flowers

As you know, I love flowers. It's spring and the desert has a few flowers. Desert flowers are elusive as some bloom for only a few hours and then they are gone. So, when I see a flower, I take it's picture NOW.

After many tries, I finally got a picture of this flower...and I still don't have a definitive name for it. It is either a "hedgehog cactus flower" (echinopsis tubiflora) or a "San Pedro cactus flower" (echinopsis pachanoi). Whatever, the flower is pretty. Two days later, the flower had withered away.

Ocotillo (on it's side) is a red flower atop a bush of thorny sticks. You don't want to get close to these flowers are the thorns will attack you. Like many desert flowers, beware of the thorns.

Pink Yucca, sends up a long shoot with flowers on the end. It will have a waxy flower.

Purple prickly pear cactus...like the name says, it has thorns too.

Not a cactus, this is Mexican Sage with lavender bell shaped flowers.

Lantana is a hearty flower that grows in many climates. I had these in northern CA as well as western WY

The leaves of a Honey Mesquite tree which is apt for this area.

Zion and Beyond

We took a circle road trip today, from Mesquite to Zion National Park to Cedar City and back. It was a beautiful spring day with perfect skies.

As always, the temples of Zion were majestic. From here we went thru the winding tunnel. The first time I went thru that tunnel I was 4 years old. I remembered my dad stopping at the windows cut in the tunnel, so we could take pictures of the pretty mountains. Today no one is allowed to stop in the tunnel, but the memory persists.We had a picnic lunch past Checkerboard Mesa and enjoyed the view. 

From here we exited Zion and drove to SR 14, by way of Carmel Junction and Glendale UT. SR 14 is my type of road, scenic, narrow and windy. As the elevation climbed, we felt like we were on the top of the world.

 

We were no longer in spring, but late winter. Snow was on the ground, and the scenery changed too. We were seeing red rock mountains on one side of the road, black lava flow on the other. Zion is not volcanic, yet a few miles away there's a recent aa lava flow dating from maybe a thousand years ago. Where's the volcano?

The geology of southern Utah is definitely varied.

At 9910 feet, the temperature was 29 degrees. We went from a pleasant spring day in Zion to a cold winter day in less than 100 miles. 

SR 14 is only 36 miles long and all too soon we were in the town of Cedar City, home of Southern Utah University. It was spring time again. The trees were in full bloom.

We had a wonderful drive. We started and ended in spring, with a brief taste of snowy cold winter in between. Does it get any better?

Lake Mead

 

The blue on this map is Lake Mead. It is the reservoir resulting from the building of Hoover (or Boulder) Dam near Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US. It is a National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service. Therefore, to enter the lake, you must pay a fee. We have a NPS pass, which is available to all seniors for a nominal one time fee. It's a good thing.

As we drove to the lake, we were wondering if we were ever going to see it. Water in the desert is a treat, and we knew it had to be near...but where?

But after we crossed an official entrance to the lake, showed our card, the lake did show up on the horizon. And then, there we were at one of the long arms of the lake near Overton, NV.

People were fishing among the islands

A few folks were boating...and the parking lot was filled with boat trailers. There were a lot of folks on the lake. It's a big lake, so who knows where they were.

Some coves were empty

A splash of blue in the red. The water was easy on our eyes, after driving through the harsh sunlight of the desert. 

The Mojave Desert in Spring

The flat top mesas are a good backdrop for the Joshua trees in the foreground. The desert is starting to bloom. We are not seeing great fields of flowers, but there's a hint of green with a few dabs of yellow on the desert floor.

The Creosote bush is blooming right now. But life in the desert is subtle. These bushes are in full bloom, as you can see below.

It's brilliant yellow flowers look like beacons when you are up close and personal, but not from a distance. It's a harsh life and they have learned how to make the most of it. 

Other plants look fuller such as the cholla and yucca.

Always in the background there are the red mountains 

...that erode into majestic shapes looking like the crenellated castles on the Rhine, guarding the place from invaders. 

 

Driving the "Old Spanish Trail"

Slowly we are learning the geography and history of our new location. The exploration is both interesting and fun. The other day we decided to take "the old road" to St. George, UT. Little did we know that the road started as an established trail sometime in the 1500s by Spaniards. The early history of the trail is obscure, but by the time John Fremont mapped the trail in the 1840s, with his guide Kit Carson, it was a well developed trade route with several routes and cut-offs.

Copied from Wikipidea

The Old Spanish Trail generally followed a 700 mile trek from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California. Merchants in Santa Fe would collect Navajo woven goods, such as blankets and serapes, and ship them on sturdy pack mules. Hundreds and men and mules moved the goods. A good Navajo blanket would buy 2 horses in California. The merchants would return with hundreds of horses and mules. The mule trains made one round trip a year, during the cooler months, so as to avoid the heat and lack of water in the Mojave Desert.

This modern desert sculpture visualizes the mules crossing the desert.

Today, the trail is more civilized. The part we drove is SR 18, a well paved 2 lane road that skirts the Virgin River, dips into the Reservation of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, shows some of the wonder of the red rocks that make up Zion National Park, not too far "down the road," before ending in St. George, UT.

Along the way there are a few abandoned buildings, with the no explanation as to what they were. 

Relics of a time and place that we don't understand or know.

This part of  NV, AZ and UT, has more miles dotted with cactus, juniper and yucca than dwellings. You can speed down the road at 55 mph, something unheard of in the 1840s. Then, the unpaved trail was a rut in the landscape made by thousands of feet (men and mule) eeking a living by moving trade goods between New Mexico and California. The trail was a permanent trade route. In the 1850s the pack mules were replaced by freight wagons pulled by 20 mule teams. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed legislation making The Old Spanish Trail the 15th National Historic Trail.

Turtles ... or Tortoises ... or Terrapins?

I've added to my crochet critter repertoire by making turtles. Then I remembered my "Harry Potter" when Hermione fears she will lose some points because her turtle looks more like a tortoise. Naturally, I had to find the difference between the two. In case you did not know, the generic name is Turtle. But if you want a bit more specificity, a turtle is a water dwelling omnivore with a flatter shell/body to allow for better swimming ability;  a tortoise is a land dwelling herbivore with a taller shell to protect it from preditors. Terrapins are the mascot for the University of Maryland, and they live in brackish water and land and are considered to be more tortoise like than turtle like. 

Given the above, here's my critters:

Based on the above description, this is probably a tortoise...a very colorful tortoise ... because it has a taller, rounded shell

...and this is a turtle with a more streamlined shell

...and the last one is named Terry Terrapin. She is a fanciful turtle that can only live in my imagination. But then, I guess that's true for all my turtle creations. I do know they are fun to make, so a few more will be added to the menagerie.