The far lot is supposed to be for RVs, but it is filled with cars. There was some sort of bike event, with people loading up ready to go home. But I was barely able to get a spot and ended up sharing it with a car, which meant I had to back up to get out instead of pulling through, which is a lot easier.
This poor bird was taking a bath in the puddle left when someone finished dumping their sewage tank at the campground. The water was not very clean, but when I left, I made sure only clean water was in this puddle! Water fill hoses and dump stations are visited by a lot of animals, including bees and other insects catching the drips of fresh water!
Nothing but fantastic views in this park! There is a much smaller park near Las Vegas that has a lot of red rocks and is popular with hikers, but it does not even begin to compare with this very large state park with long views!
This looks a lot like brittle bush, but it is actually desert marigold! Flowers are rounder and petals are tighter.
This blue-green bush had fuzzy flowerlets. Will need to look it up.
My camera automatically brightens dark photos, but this was actually taken at dusk. The hundreds of desert primroses were opening. If you came here at the sunny part of the day, you would not see any of these flowers.
This plant had long spiky branches, but no leaves. Or maybe these were leaves? It was definitely NOT a cactus plant because the leaves were very soft.
Amazingly long views!
This is supposed to look like an elephant.
The desert is amazingly green this year! There is grass, but a lot of the color comes from the creosote bushes. And, yes, they smell exactly like burning rubber.
As I was heading back to the campground, a large herb of bighorn sheep had decided to cross the park road and were causing a sheep-jam as they crossed from one side to join the others on the other side. Total was a whopping 20-25 animals, which is a lot for bighorn. They eat grass and also certain shrubs.
This looks dangerous, but actually all traffic had stopped, but this young female was scared and running across as fast as she could.
Part of the herd on the other side.
You can tell that most of these are females or very young males because their horns are smaller and not curved into a complete or nearly complete circle.
Last look at my campsite and the view I wake up to each morning.
Since I am on the outside of the campground, I have a great view of the distance.
Leaving the state park.
Thank you for those beautiful pictures of the area. I always wondered about that place and would love to go there. Maybe in the fall because I suspect it would be way too hot in the summer.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy your blog!
Karen in Pennsylvania