Desert
Southwest with Ken & Carmen
Feb
25-26, 2005
Guide- Bob
Miller
Two days of fun in the sun. Salton Sea, Imperial Valley, Imperial
Sand Dunes and a trek in the Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area.
Click on
thumbnail pictures for full-sized shots.
Day 2 - Saturday
(continued)
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"Garden of Eden"
pocket
In 2004 I had a Western Scrub-Jay in here and this year there
were ~six Green-tailed and ~eight Spotted Towhees. |
One of the most awesome pockets in the dunes is called the Garden of
Eden. It is not very big but it is very dense for the middle
of a desert! 
Red-tailed Hawk nest
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Red-tailed Hawk
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This Red-tailed Hawk nest had three babies in it later in the
year. The adults like to fly over and scream at you! I have
seen about eight Red-tailed Hawk nests and as many if not more
Great Horned Owl nests in the dunes this year.
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| In some spots 35 foot tall trees were completely
covered over by climbing vines and the vegetation was too dense to
pass between trees.
Pocket full of Apricot Mallow
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Knee deep in wild!
A storm cell moving across the Chocolate Mountains was about 12
miles away from us. All water that flows off this face of
those distant mountains stops here at the foot of the dunes in the
"pockets."
Black Mountain
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Watching the rain fall on the distant mountains it was easy to see
how the waters could run up against the dunes and become trapped
in the pockets.
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Chocolate & Black
Mountains
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Carmen & Ken
Out of the dunes and back to the Salton Sea!
Obsidian Butte, Salton Sea
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Ken suggested a book I should read. I read it.
WOW! I have been exploring these deserts my whole life and
have always had a thing about seeing water in the desert. A
man named Craig Childs has put it all into words for
me! "The Secret Knowledge of Water" It
should be required reading for anyone who sets foot in the desert
southwest and I highly recommend it to all.
Rock Hill
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We took a walk out Rock Hill Trail at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea
NWR in hopes of finding one of the very few Yellow-footed Gulls
that wintered at the Salton Sea this year.
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Obsidian Butte, Ring-billed Gulls
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Did not find the Yellow-footed Gull but did get to see several
hundred thousand Ring-billed Gulls going out to raft on the
sea. A sweet sunset made up for it!
Salton Sea
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