A Little Excitement and a Few More Pictures

Monday I decided to take a hike around a loop here with a short side spur to an overlook.

I was walking up a gradual slope to the summit on the main loop and had just stopped to look back and take a photo of the campground.

I turned around and this snake was crawling across the trail.

If you look closely you can just see him curled in that bush. I estimate he was about 3 feet long. After I snapped his photo for identification I stepped a bit off the trail and quietly walked by. It was a western diamondback rattlesnake.

I can pinpoint exactly where I was when I saw him on the map of my hike; I was at the blip of red heart rate.

I continued with my hike. When I got to the spur trail the sign said it was 2 miles, while my map said it was just a tenth of a mile. I opted not to take the trail, admittedly mostly because it is called Rattlesnake Overlook.

Yesterday we did some exploring in the truck. All the roads except the one to the park are dirt. Most dead end at the edge of the lake.

We were impressed that at the end of these small, steep dirt roads were large camping trailers. This is Army Corps of Engineers land and camping is free and permitted for up to two weeks at a time. But this seemed like a lot of work for a two week stay with no services.

We went down a road called Brown’s Crossing,

but like all the roads it ended in a turnaround near the river.

By the way, the whole end of the lake as shown on our off-road map is dry now. We probably could have driven past the turnaround, but the road dwindled and we weren’t sure it would be passable for our truck. The map said it was not.

It was strange to see stop signs out on these remote dirt roads.

Yesterday I did venture up to Rattlesnake Overlook, even though it was a rocky ridge and looked like great snake territory.

I was very vigilant but saw no snakes. It did give a nice view of the lake.

On the way back I saw this lizard. Can you see him? He blends in pretty well.

And I was surprised to see this very dried up and leathery little mushroom. A mushroom in the desert! I was again amazed at the ability of life to exist under the most difficult conditions.

Oh yes, Bud did get a fishing license and has gone fishing twice. Above is a picture of the fish he’s caught. Yeah, nothing. He did see some fish swim by this morning. He said he dropped his worm right in front of one and it swam right by. There’s a fish cleaning station in view of our trailer. Every day at least six boats go out fishing here but I’ve never seen anyone cleaning fish. So the best bass fishing in Arizona may not be much.