I am just back from a two week road trip with my husband which took us through five states...California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. This was not a photography oriented trip, so I was not up at dawn to catch the rising sun or seeking out the bests spots to photograph a colorful sunset or wildlife.
It was a time to explore new places, connect with old friends and share new experiences. I did however have a camera and a couple of lenses on hand should anything interesting present itself and my iPhone to record short video clips.
Our journey began by heading to Truckee, California where we spent the night. En route we stopped at Taylors in Loomis, known for offering over 300 varieties of milkshakes!
We arrived in time to get a walk in around beautiful Donner Lake which has a really nice trail with multiple access points to the lake. Here we watched what we thought were chipmunks gathering dry sticks and leaves, which they would carry in their mouth and transport to their burrows in preparation for the approaching winter when they hibernate. How cute they were and it was only later that I learned they were in fact Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels. Slightly larger than a chipmunk and without the stripes on the face.
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| Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis) |
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| Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis) |
We also saw a large number of Common Mergansers in the lake, congregating on a rock near the shoreline where they were preening their feathers. I slowly made my way out to where they were via a sand spit and fired off a few images.
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| Common Mergansers (Mergus Merganser) |
The next morning we headed to Salt Lake City driving across the entire state of Nevada. This was to be the longest leg of our trip as far as driving time and it took us over eight hours to reach our destination. I assumed the Nevada landscape was going to be flat, endless and nondescript, but in fact I found it to be quite beautiful, even as we made our way through driving rain.
In Salt Lake City we overnighted in the hip "9th & 9th" neighborhood which has a really nice selection of restaurants including the "East Liberty Tap House" where we enjoyed delicious smoked trout tacos and really good craft brews.
Day three began with a brief visit to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, about an hour drive north of SLC depending on traffic. This is not the optimal time of year to visit the refuge, but I figured since we were in the area, there was no harm in checking it out for future reference.
Established in 1928, the Refuge lies on the eastern fringe of the Pacific Flyway and the western fringe of the Central Flyway. It is associated with the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, which provides critical habitat for migrating birds. During the spring and fall migrations, vast numbers of water bird species, especially shorebirds migrate through the Refuge. In the fall in particular, up to 500,000 migrating ducks and geese concentrate on the Refuge marshes with tundra swans beginning to arrive in mid-October. The scenery was really quite spectacular and I could only imagine the scene before me when thousands of birds are in residence. Definitely a good reason to return here!
Since I only had about an hour or so to spend, I took the 12 mile auto tour which meanders through the Refuge The start of the route is accessible about 12 miles west from the visitor center, so in all, a 36 mile drive from the visitor center and back.
The first part of the route was very dry and riddled with mosquitos, so any attempt to roll down my windows or even get out of the car resulted in a mass attack. The only way to get them out of the car was to roll down all the windows, drive fast and hopefully blow them out! It seemed to work pretty well.
Birds I initially encountered included a Great Blue Heron, Red-winged Blackbirds, three Sandhill Cranes in flight and a Chukar, which is similar to a partridge. A native of southern Eurasia, the Chukar was introduced to North America as a game bird and the males are really beautiful. This was my first sighting of this bird and only guessing what it was after seeing a large sign along the highway advertising the upcoming annual Chukar tournament. It was unsurprisingly skittish and vanished into the scrub very quickly.
Day three began with a brief visit to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, about an hour drive north of SLC depending on traffic. This is not the optimal time of year to visit the refuge, but I figured since we were in the area, there was no harm in checking it out for future reference.
Established in 1928, the Refuge lies on the eastern fringe of the Pacific Flyway and the western fringe of the Central Flyway. It is associated with the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, which provides critical habitat for migrating birds. During the spring and fall migrations, vast numbers of water bird species, especially shorebirds migrate through the Refuge. In the fall in particular, up to 500,000 migrating ducks and geese concentrate on the Refuge marshes with tundra swans beginning to arrive in mid-October. The scenery was really quite spectacular and I could only imagine the scene before me when thousands of birds are in residence. Definitely a good reason to return here!
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| Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge |
Since I only had about an hour or so to spend, I took the 12 mile auto tour which meanders through the Refuge The start of the route is accessible about 12 miles west from the visitor center, so in all, a 36 mile drive from the visitor center and back.
The first part of the route was very dry and riddled with mosquitos, so any attempt to roll down my windows or even get out of the car resulted in a mass attack. The only way to get them out of the car was to roll down all the windows, drive fast and hopefully blow them out! It seemed to work pretty well.
Birds I initially encountered included a Great Blue Heron, Red-winged Blackbirds, three Sandhill Cranes in flight and a Chukar, which is similar to a partridge. A native of southern Eurasia, the Chukar was introduced to North America as a game bird and the males are really beautiful. This was my first sighting of this bird and only guessing what it was after seeing a large sign along the highway advertising the upcoming annual Chukar tournament. It was unsurprisingly skittish and vanished into the scrub very quickly.
As I made my way around the Refuge, it was only on the final stretch that I came across larger areas of open water and wading birds, but many were far in the distance. Here there were White-faced Ibis, American White Pelicans and American Avocets, large numbers of Swallows and various ducks, but the light at this point was overhead and harsh and we needed to get back on the road for the next leg of our trip to Laramie, Wyoming.
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