We woke to a beautiful blue sky and sunshine this morning with a high of 24C/75F but it was windy. We were sitting at the dining table having breakfast when our neighbour,Tony, fired up his motorhome and left. We thought it was odd...he said he wasn't leaving until Friday...then we realized he had just moved down to site 1. I guess he preferred a site to himself (don't blame him). With his motorhome out of the way, it sure opened up our view of the lake...
(Click to enlarge photos)
At 10:30, we headed out for a hike to the Visitors Centre...we had to walk down to the end of the lake to find the trail. A rest stop along the way...
Ah ha...we found it! Davenport Trail...
It goes around the marshy area...
The trail continues up and over the hill on the left...
Up and up we go...
The lake is in the distance...
Our rig on the left...way down there...
There was a bench strategically placed at the top of the hill...water break!
The trail continues on...and on...there's Lower Pahranagat Lake in the distance...
How would you like to be one of the workers that placed all these trail rocks!
Finally...the Visitor Centre with Lower Pahranagat Lake in the distance...
There are two old cabins below those trees that we'll be visiting...
The
Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center has only been open for about 6 weeks and is beautiful. Very well done!
Gail, the camphost who greeted us when we arrived at the campground happened to be working in the centre today. We watched a 10 minute documentary about the refuge and then wandered through the exhibits.
As we were about to leave the centre, Gail told us that there were 4 bats on the outside wall of the building...sure enough, here they are...
We left the visitors centre and walked across a footbridge over the stream...we're off to take the trail to a couple of old cabins...
Cabin made out of railroad ties...
And the "Petroglyph Cabin" ...
The cabins are located near the volunteer compound, so as we were checking out the cabins, Gail had finished her shift and came over to chat with us a bit more. She said that a long-eared owl had been perched in a tree by the railroad tie cabin...unfortunately, it wasn't there anymore. She also told us of a couple of other things to watch for on our route home...a coyotes den...
...and petroglyphs on the rocks along the road...
Telephoto shot of one across the highway...
Mineral deposits almost look like snow!
We finally reached the lake and the campground...almost home! We have been told our truck looks like a garbage truck but we think this one has us beat!
We arrived back home shortly after 2:00...hot, tired and hungry...we had taken lots of water but no lunch or snacks. My tracker said that we had clocked 10.8 km/6.75 miles! I quickly made us sandwiches and then we relaxed for the rest of the day...ahhh....
Great place for a hike. Glad I did not have to put all those rocks down:)
ReplyDeleteLooks like we saw the same exact garbage truck looking rig when we were near Las Cruses a couple of weeks ago! That's got to be the same guy we were camped by at Leasburg Dam SP. How funny! What an neat trail to have all those rock lining it the entire way! Love the bats.
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Our bats at Monck do not look at that at all! Those are cute little fuzz balls. Ours are UGLY.
ReplyDeleteThose are cute and fuzzy bats, almost makes you want to pick them up and pet them!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful place to stay and visit....we just added that to our list of places to visit! Glad to see you are having a blast on the way back home!
ReplyDeleteStay well,
Les and Sue