The Big Move

From June 26 until July 2, we drove across the country, reversing last year's move from Ohio to California and tacking on a bit more distance for good measure. Two cars, four people (my parents flew out to California and very generously made the drive with us), two pet rabbits and a turtle, and way too many house plants... and all this for ~3,000 miles, over a planned six days that turned into seven when one of our cars required mechanical attention in Wyoming. My goodness. I still can't quite believe we pulled it off.

Having done an almost-as-lengthy move last year, I had at least some idea of what I was getting myself into, and this time I decided to take greater advantage of the sights along the way. After all, when will I be driving across the country again? (If I have my way: never, ever, ever.) We were on a pretty tight schedule, so there wasn't really any time for serious sightseeing, but we planned our brief rest stops at as many scenic places as we could (mostly along I-80), and we ended up seeing lots of cool things. Here's a map of the trip -- red dots are overnight stops, black lines are places where the pictures in this post come from... and for a spoiler of what's coming next, look at where we ended up!

About halfway through our first day of driving, we stopped off at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, in the Sacramento Valley of California. It was blazingly hot in the refuge (goodbye temperate coastal climate), and a family of very noisy Western Kingbirds was panting in the heat:

This stop also featured the briefest glimpse of a Black-tailed Jackrabbit as it loped across the path:

By late afternoon that same day, we were up in the mountains at Donner Pass, near California's border with Nevada. This was the first of several rest stops where we found abundant and active rodent populations -- I'm sure the presence of people and their food was a big factor in this! Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels were particularly plentiful here:

Large rocks in the glacial meadow at this rest stop were popular lookout spots for these little creatures:

Several chipmunks (I'm unsure of the species) were running around in this meadow as well:

Halfway through the second day -- again, in blistering heat -- we stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats, in Utah. I don't know that I've ever seen such an alien landscape:

While this place looked entirely barren at first glance, there was actually quite a bit going on. A Common Raven flew overhead, panting:

A female dragonfly -- with the male dragonfly attached -- was depositing eggs on the surface of what I assume was a very salty pool:

From some angles, the two dragonflies looked more like one super-bug:
 

And I was absolutely delighted by a little Wilson's Phalarope who was foraging in this same pool; this was a totally new bird for me, and its (her?) costume and manner made her very endearing:

She kept swimming in tight circles and snatching up bit of food. I learned later that phalaropes spin to create whirlpools that bring small invertibrates up to the water's surface. What an awesome bird:
 

Here's a brief video of this phalarope hunting like phalaropes do:
 

 
Later that afternoon, we stopped at Echo Canyon in northeastern Utah, where the landscape was about as different from the salt flats as possible:

This place was such an interesting combination of inviting green brush and dramatic cliff faces:
 

Continuing the theme of rodent abundance, the Echo Canyon rest stop was home to a thriving colony of Uinta Ground Squirrels, which are also apparently called Potguts. :)

These little creatures were very bold and VERY loud, emitting ear-piercing tones right at us from a few feet away. Ah, the life of a potgut looks pretty good from here:

Our planned overnight stay in Rock Springs, Wyoming became a day-long visit while we waited for my car to be fixed. Well, that just gave us the chance to explore another totally bizarre landscape. These rock formations were across the street from our hotel:

I'm certainly not used to seeing cactus flowers in the wild, and this cactus's serious spines were a cool bonus:
 

We also met a lovely cottontail rabbit (species unknown) during our further adventures in Rock Springs:

On Day 6, we made it to the Mississippi river:

And this was where I really started to feel like we were returning to the east, with Blue Jays calling and other familiar sights all around. A male Indigo Bunting sang from his mostly-concealed perch:

A damselfly snacked on a smaller (newly molted?) bug:
 

But of course we weren't entirely back in the east yet. An American White Pelican glided in a perfectly smooth and straight line overhead, and it took us all a moment to realize we weren't looking at a plane or kite or something mechanical:

And there's my snapshot of our cross-country trip! A more leisurely pace -- with more time for side adventures, especially out west -- might have been nice, but we were eager to make it to our destination. I'm so very grateful that the trip went as smoothly as it did. And now it's over. And now we're here. And there is so much to explore! More soon!

Utah Vacation, Part 1: Into the Mountains

I spent the past week traveling with my family in Northeastern Utah, a part of the country that was completely new to me. I was excited to visit with my people and see new things, and this vacation definitely didn't disappoint!

We went on quite a few hikes while we were in the area, and encountered gorgeous scenery and cool wildlife with each trip. Our first extended visit was to Tony Grove Lake, a glacial lake up in the mountains near Logan (the town where we were staying), and something like 8,000 feet above sea level. (That's pretty high up!) Tony Grove Lake is apparently famed for its summer wildflower display, and we arrived right in the middle of the show. I have to say, it was pretty amazing:

The steep slopes around the lake were entirely carpeted with wildflowers in full bloom, and in an incredible variety. There was columbine, Indian paintbrush, larkspur, and dozens of flowers I still don't have names for -- if I'd actually tried to catalog and identify all the flowers in bloom, I'm sure it would've taken me all day! Even without knowing all their names, though, the total collections of flowers really were gorgeous:

The lake itself was fairly busy with people (it was a weekend, and there's a pretty popular campground here), but there were also plenty of animals to see. Several of these big dragonflies (which I haven't been able to identify to species) hovered over the water and stayed still long enough for me to take pictures -- I love how this creature has its legs tucked up delicately behind its head:

And a few birds flew down to pay us a visit, including this handsome male Red-naped Sapsucker:

From Tony Grove Lake, there are a few trails that lead up into the mountains, and I spent a good bit of time meandering along one of these. Away from the lake, there were hardly any other people, and as I climbed another few hundred feet, the terrain morphed into something rocky and beautiful:

Up here, there were even more flowers, including some that I didn't see around the lake. My favorite of these was Stonecrop (Sedum debile), with its golden blooms standing a few inches above the plant's weird, round, succulent leaves, which really do look like they're part of the surrounding rocks:

There were some awesome birds up here, too. Mountain Bluebirds and Steller's Jays reminded me of our own Eastern Bluebirds and Blue Jays, and the Mountain Chickadees sounded just like our Black-capped Chickadees (to my ears) and looked like them, too, except for the weird white eyebrows in their black caps:

The family of Northern Flickers that lived along this trail was also great fun to watch. These western birds have red in their wing and tail feathers ("red-shafted") where our eastern birds of the same species have yellow ("yellow-shafted"). I love our yellow-adorned birds, but these reddened Northern Flickers were very pretty indeed:

I even happened (magically) to snap a picture just as one of these flickers took flight -- I can't help thinking of this creature's feathers as flames... what an awesome bird!

Also remarkably flame-like, a male Western Tanager flitted across my path a few times -- you can't not stop to look at a bird like this!

Many of the birds I saw on this mountain had families in tow ('tis the season!), and the Western Tanager was one of these. The baby waits, and Dad obliges by bringing a meal:

This White-crowned Sparrow was another new bird for me, although the species is also an uncommon winter resident in Connecticut:

Next to birds, rodents were the most common and active creatures in these mountains. Chipmunks were particularly common -- I won't make a guess as to specific identification, since there are multiple similar-looking chipmunk species that live in this area -- foraging next to the trail and just basically being adorable (I love this one's bracelet of dripping yellow petals):

I think the elegant markings on these little creatures are just too pretty, and they're more intense than those on our Eastern Chipmunks back home. I took this next picture on another day in another section of the mountains (and it might not even be the same species of chipmunk), but I think it shows off these markings best:

I even saw a couple of chipmunks who were apparently part of a family group, following and climbing over each other as they explored a fallen branch:

Many rocks along the trail served as convenient look-out points for larger ground squirrels -- this one has again evaded my identification attempts, since there are two species it could be:

And although this final rodent has the body stripes of a chipmunk, it's actually another squirrel -- a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel:

So while I didn't see any big mammals in the mountains (there are elk and moose in the area, among other creatures), I had a fantastic time with the birds, flowers, and small mammals, not to mention the scenery:

Yeah, Utah's pretty cool.

Coming up: an account of our trip to Antelope Island, where big mammals (and other creatures) abound!