Pallas Cats and Pallas Cat Kittens, Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City

My wife was in need of cheering up over the Labor Day weekend, so we made a short-notice trip up to the Hogle Zoo, in Salt Lake City.

We had read of the birth of Pallas Cat kittens back in early spring, and made some abstract plans to go see them. But, the fact is, it's a pretty long drive to Salt Lake City, so making this a weekend road trip can be pretty exhausting, even if it's a three day weekend.

So we made the drive. And despite the three day weekend, the drive up there wasn't bad, at all.

For logistical reasons, we spent two nights in Beaver, Utah. The rationale was that was we could get from Las Vegas to there quite easily, even after work, on Saturday, but it would still be close enough to get from there to the zoo then back on Sunday. Then I'd just have to make the drive back south, through Las Vegas and on to Los Angeles, on Monday, to be back at work, on Tuesday. It worked, but, yeah, while the drive up to Beaver on Saturday and to Salt Lake and back on Sunday were not bad, the drive back to Los Angeles, on Monday, was ridiculous.

Somewhat ironically, this was just over a year since our previous stay in Beaver, on the way to the total solar eclipse. I never really managed a proper write up of that trip, though.

The Pallas cat lives naturally in the high altitude lands of central Asia. That means they do well in moderate altitude like Salt Lake, and you don't find them in zoos in southern California. Hence, the crazy drive.

The cats and kittens were as cute as advertised. And, yes, we saw other things. But I took probably 100 pictures of the Pallas Cats, so they get a post of their own. I'm still pretty behind on other posts, but I figured this one would be a quickie.

Canyon View Trail, Zion National Park, Utah

Hiked Friday, September 7.

This is a short, 1 mile roundtrip hike. I first hiked this almost 20 years ago, and intended to come back here later this night to photograph the night sky. But I forgot a tripod part, so the night hike got scrubbed. Took night shots at Canyon Junction, instead, which worked out mostly better.

The trailhead is right at the east entrance to the tunnel on the Zion-Mt. Carmel highway. If you're coming from Canyon Junction, there's a small parking lot on the right, immediately after exiting the tunnel. If you miss that, or you're not driving a compact car, there is limited on-the-side-of-the-road parking, mostly on the north side of the road. If you're coming from the east and you don't park soon enough, you're forced to drive through the entire tunnel before you'll find a place to turn around, so don't do that!

The tunnel, according to the Park Service, was built between 1927 and 1930, and was not intended for oversized vehicles, so if you're a large camper or RV, you'll have to pay an extra fee and schedule your passage through. If you're a commercial vehicle, you'll have to go some other way.

But that means everyone who drives may need to wait for a convoy including an oversized vehicle passes one way or the other. I was waiting in just such a queue when I snapped the first shot of this post with my phone camera. Yes, I was stopped.

The trail is highly engineered, with steps cut or blasted into the rock, and railing or bridges at a few crossing areas, and at the end of the trail.

Right after passing the overhang above, I ran across a small herd of desert bighorn. They were still in the area when I walked back, maybe an hour later. Even without trying, they were no more than twenty yards from me as I passed.

The reason for the long gap in time for such a short hike is that I, like many others, waited for sunset. The canyon view looks more or less to the west, so the sunsets in the distance. On the night I was there, there were plenty of fluff clouds that I thought made the sunset pretty spectacular. But someone while I was there pronounced the sunset "a dud." I'm not sure if he was being ironic. It's hard to tell with people, sometimes.

The other thing people apparently like to do now is, rather than take photos or enjoying the sunset directly, they want to stand on a rock and be photographed as though they are somewhere precipitous. Fortunately, they apparently are good enough at Photoshop that they can just edit you out, so you don't actually have to care if they keep crowding behind you to stand on a rock and strike a pose while their friends take their pictures.

In the old days, you could just take a picture of a place, and people could tell by your having taken a picture that you were there. Now, however, it's apparently required to place yourself in the picture, with that very special pose. Even the "I'm gazing out and enjoying the sunset in solitude" shots need to be posed, reviewed, and reshot, which would seem to me to make it really hard to actually "enjoy the sunset." But that's just me. I spend the time around sunset watching the changing colors and shadows of the clouds and landscape around me. These moments are fleeting enough that I don't want to be distracted with how I or someone else looks in their selfie or "candid" moments. Yep, grumpy old man!

Canyon Junction, Zion National Park, UT

Did an overnight trip to Zion National Park last weekend. Stayed in Watchman Campground on the night of the 7th.
Just took two hikes, neither of which I've posted, yet.

During the overnight, I drove up to Canyon Junction for some Milky Way shots.

Unfortunately, I forgot the adapter for my tripod to my camera, so I had to shoot either balancing the camera on the bridge railing, or balanced on my sweater, atop the railing. The shots came out okay, although obviously if you zoom in, you can see evidence of camera wobble and movement during the exposure.
Hopefully, next time will be more successful.

Not sure when I'll have time to blog my hikes. The short one, maybe this weekend. The longer one will take longer to sort pictures.

Alpine Pond, Sunset and Campground Trails, Cedar Breaks National Monument UT, July 14, 2018

Just about one month since I hiked here. This was part two of a two night trip into southern Utah. On the first afternoon, I arrived in Zion and just hung around the Watchman Campground and hiked the Watchman trail, twice. The next day, I headed up to Cedar Breaks, with the intent of doing some hiking, then volunteering for the star party (they have one every Saturday night, in the summer).

Despite my any visits here, previously, I had never actually camped at Cedar Breaks. I always just stayed in a motel down in Cedar City, an easy half-hour drive down the mountain. But because I was an official NPS volunteer, they were willing to put me up in a campsite.

Had to do some hiking before checking in, though, since I arrived before check-in time. I decided to hike the Alpine Pond trail, which I had done before, but not on my trip, the previous month. It may not be until the Colorado Columbines over the red amphitheater rocks that any of the shots are actually from the Alpine Loop trail. Also, the sunflower field was from a large meadow that's east of the trail. I walked back from the Alpine Pond trailhead to the Point Supreme Trailhead via the road, because I wanted to be on the correct side (for lighting purposes) for those sunflowers.

My photos were organized by flower type, however, so the first few shots were not from that hike, but from one of the others.

I went through my shots and organized by flower type, so the order is lost and I can't tell you for sure on which of the three short trails I walked that I saw each of these flowers. The exception would be the large meadow of sunflowers, which was just west of the main road that passes through the monument.

The flowers were obviously blooming in greater number and variety than the previous month, was is to be expected. The week was there this time was supposed to be their "Wildflower Festival," which presumably is scheduled for just such a consideration (though, admittedly, I did not hike the Alpine Loop trail, last time. Still, it seemed like the flower variety was pretty limited on the parts I could see, including the large meadow. The most prominent flower that time was the Aspen bell, which does not stand out like the sunflowers, to be sure.

After my hike, I was able to check in. I forget the site number, but it overlooked another large meadow, to its east.

It's a nice little campground, though it looks like some construction is underway. I didn't ask anyone what it was about.

The sites are sufficiently spaced, though I think there's only one flush toilet and shower per gender. It was pretty empty the night I was there, so that wasn't an issue. If the place is fully booked, that might be an issue.

A nice engineered feature of the campsites here is that you pitch your tent on worn river pebbles, so any water that does fall on your tent drains down rather than potentially running between your tent and the ground, so that helps keep you dry if it rains, which it did, heavily, while I was there.

The regular nightly fee of $24 is up a few dollars from last year, and relatively expensive for a small park. On the other hand, it includes a shower, which could otherwise cost more than a few dollars each, if you had to go elsewhere for a shower. That was a lifesaver for me, considering how hot and humid the previously night down in Zion had been.

Maybe an hour or so after getting my tent pitch, some pretty serious rain came down. I stayed completely dry, however.

I had bought a new tent about a month previous, since I had ambitions for perhaps a few more camping trips this year than last year, and my old tent, purchased from Sears, in the late 1980s, was showing its age. I had serious doubts as to how it would hold up in the rain.

Bought the new tent during REI's "friends and family" Memorial Day sale, although I'm starting to think I probably could have gotten it for less, even without the sale and coupon, had I bought it from elsewhere. At any rate, it's an ALPS Mountaineering Meramac 3 tent. The selling point for me was the oversized shock cords, and, of course, the use of clips rather than a sleeve for the shock cords.

There's nothing revolutionary about that, but it was a step above what I had. Much easier for one person to pitch the tent, that way.

The tent has a large amount of mesh on the walls, so it gives you no privacy without the fly. If it's fair weather and you're just trying to keep the creepy crawlies off of you, you can go without the fly. With rain likely as I set up, of course I used the fly.

Lots of breathing space between the fly and the tent, so I think this would breath decently. Nice long reach of the fly, to keep the water off the tent body. I also bought the fitted "footprint," to keep the tent floor off the dirt.

I was completely dry inside, after a multiple hour deluge of monsoonal moisture.

Unfortunately, the clouds never really dissipated after the rain, so even when the rain stopped, it seemed likely that no astronomy was going to happen that night. To be safe, I did drive my car with my telescope the short 1/2 mile or so to the visitor center, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't need it.

Instead, I used the time to hike the Campground and Sunset trails. Actually, I think there are two Campground trails, because one is paved and presumably ADA compliant, while the other is single-track, and has steeper grades. The single track also takes you further from the road, so that's nice. The nice view of what I assume are common yarrow were from that hike. There was also a large boulder, with hollows on the top that filled with water. A bird was bathing in it. It was a pretty sight, but my photographs did not do it justice.

Once at Sunset Point, I spent some serious time, on the chance that maybe the sun would peek under the clouds and give us some magic. That did not happen.

I did get to chat with several interesting individuals who also watched for sunset. I learned some about various cameras, as well. That was a nice plus to the trip.

Once the sun was well below the horizon, and whatever colors we were going to get were passed, I walked back to my car, then drove back to my campsite. Used my new headlamp on occasion, which was another nice plus.

Went to bed under clouds. Got up at about 3:30am, to pee. Zipped out of the tent, and was greeted by a wonderfully dark and clear sky. So I did my business, then hopped back in the car to drive back to the visitor center parking lot. There were too many trees, and the light from the restroom was too bright to take night sky shots from the campground.

Of course, I knew I was racing the sunrise, so I didn't bother with trying a lot of different lenses. I basically just shot at ISO 1600 and f/2.8. Don't remember if 20 or 30 seconds. And even with that, after three or four shots, clearly, the horizon was getting brighter.

They came out okay, though a little vignetted (meaning the lens shield seems to be impinging on the corners of the frame). That happens if I'm not careful about making sure the lens shield is completely mounted, so that might be it.

These weren't the shots I was planning for. I was actually thinking I might hike out to Ramparts Overlook and get some shots of Bristlecone pines, silhouetted against the Milky Way. But I knew I had no chance at getting any significant hiking in before the dawn.

Once the horizon got sufficiently bright that I figured I had no chance at getting serious Milky Way without getting an overly bright horizon, I packed it up and drove back to my campsite.

It was still only about 4:30am, local time. But I was awake, so I decided to break camp in the dark. Hopefully, I did not disturb my neighbors.

The early start meant I could get back to the LA area by early afternoon, and, not insignificantly, beat at least some of the Las Vegas to LA traffic you get on any given Sunday. Major plus.

Despite not getting a chance to do any astronomy outreach, I thought this trip was a good one. I got some interesting shots in Zion, the night before. I got to stay at the Point Supreme campground, to see how I liked it (I liked it a lot). And I got to do some new hikes, short though they were. Got some nice conversations along the way, too.

There were other destinations nearby that I thought I might visit that I didn't have time for. However, Cedar Breaks is pretty near by, and I may be able to return later in the year. Not 100 percent sure, though, since I have tentative plans for a trip to eastern Utah during the time when I had been visiting the Cedar City area for the aspen. Anyway, we'll see.

Watchman Trail, Zion National Park, UT, July 13, 2018

Drove up from the LA area to Zion on Friday, July 13. This was mainly because of the planned public star party at Cedar Breaks scheduled for the next day, but also because a friend had taken a picture of the Milky Way, rising above the Watchman area back in late winter, and I wanted to get my own!

There was serious monsoon weather all over the Southwest. I hit a heavy downpour as I approached the Valley Wells visitor center (I-15, between Baker and Primm, near Cima Road). All of the rest areas between Las Vegas and Los Angeles had been closed for an annoyingly long period of time, but, finally, both northbound rest areas were open, as was southbound Valley Wells. I was sort of looking forward to stopping there for the first time in what seemed like a year, but the downpour was serious enough that I drove on.

My only stops that day were at Barstow and St. George. Well, and La Verkin. I realized after I left home I didn't have a towel, so I stopped at the Family General Store, where Utah Highway 9 makes the sharp right turn, out of town, and begins an incline, up towards Virgin. I knew there was a )free) shower in the Cedar Breaks campground that I was staying at the next day, and I was pretty sure I was going to get pretty sweaty from my hiking, tonight, and could really use a shower, tomorrow.

There had been some pretty serious downpours around Zion earlier in the week and as I drove through the Gateway town of Springdale, there was plenty of evidence of dirt having been pushed off the road. I also saw that parking in town was no longer free. I pulled into one lot just to check the price: Flat $20 for the lot nearest the entrance. I don't know if the other lots or along the street have different prices, but $20 seemed kind of steep. If it costs almost as much to park as to enter, I figure more people will try to enter and find parking in the limited area between the gate and Canyon Junction. In any event, my arrival this day was late enough that it wasn't an issue. Only a few cars in front of me, and I had a campground, and the guaranteed parking spot that came with it.

Pitched my tent, then debated my options. I had been toying with the idea of a night ascent of Angels Landing, but the shuttle runs late enough that I'd have had to walk several miles back on the road to get back to my campsite. Also, it was really dark, upcanyon, and I didn't want to get stuck in a downpour. So then it was between scouting the Pa'Rus trail or the Watchman Trail, for where I might hope to set up my camera for some skyscapes. I went with the Watchman.

Yeah, it was hot, and humid, and not very pleasant. But the view was nice. It's supposed to be about 3.3 miles, roundtrip, though I'm not sure where they measure it from. I'm sure it's an extra mile or mile-and-a-half or so longer if you're starting from the Watchman Campground.

As with my Arch Rock hike of the previous month, I got to where I though I might take some shots then pulled out my phone and launched my planetarium software, to see where the Milky Way would be, later that night. Of course, this was pretty speculative, since, at the time, it was pretty cloudy, and getting cloudier.

Later that night, it did seem to clear, so I returned on this hike after dark, with my headlamp. It worked fine. In fact, I discovered that the spiders in Zion have a very reflective set of eyes, and you could see the spider eyes even if the spider was hiding under rocks. I also saw plenty of beetles, a scorpion, and assorted other insect life. Oh, yes, I also ran into four deer, who didn't know what to make of me. Hopefully, they all got safely off the trail, once they finally did decided to move.

There's quite a bit of ambient light hitting the cliffs of Zion from the campground, visitor center, and Springdale. I kept the exposures relatively short so as not to overexpose the clouds or the foreground. Not all that many stars to see, unfortunately. But it was still a nice diversion, in advance of what I hoped would be a star party, the next night, at Cedar Breaks.

Mount Pinos, Los Pades National Forest, July 4, 2018

This from way back on the Fourth of July. Day off, and I thought perhaps I could still catch the Iris bloom at the meadow near the parking area at the end of the road.

Although I first "discovered" this meadow in mid-July 2010, I knew this was a relatively dry and warm winter, so I figured the bloom would be earlier. Similarly, I had also been here in late June one year, and even then, the bloom was not as thick as my first visit. So I know there's a lot of variability, depending, I assume on the precipitation, how cold the winter was, how quickly the summer heats up and so forth.

This year, I felt that the iris density as definitely still not as much as my first visit, and spent blooms seemed to outnumber active blooms. However, at least at the northern end, the iris bloomed relatively thick.

I took a lot of pictures in the meadow, many with the busy swallowtail butterflies, that see to like the iris. I walked carefully, trying to minimize my impact on the flowers. Then I retreated and walked the short trail to Mount Pinos' "summit."

The hike there is not particular steep or interesting. It's mostly flat. But there are several meadows with plenty of mariposa lilies. This is probably the most reliable place I've been to for finding this flower. As you can see, some look more purple-tinged than others.

Indian paintbrush is the other most common flower on this route. They were not as thick as on previous hikes in the area, but still plentiful.

It's an easy two miles or so to the summit. From there, there's the possibility of continuing on, to Mount Abel (or other destinations, but that's the one I'd been to, in the past). However, I needed to get back reasonably early, for family purposes. So I spent only about fifteen minutes around the overlook, snapping pictures and enjoying the rest bit, then returned the way I came.

As is my habit, I stopped at the Pilot/Flying J truck stop, which is right of I-15. There used to be a Denny's there but it was closed. The truck stop's grill and fountain drink dispensers were also down (the latter due to being out of C02). It seemed like a hell of a way to be prepared for the Fourth of July, but maybe this stop is just not that busy, any more.

Seven Magic Mountains, Jean/Sloan, Nevada

When I first saw the "Seven Magic Mountains" signs along I-15, with their (what I call) "recreational brown" background, I thought that perhaps a new hiking area had been developed. Only later, I discovered that the neon-colored rocks were the mountains, and the "hike" would be a few hundred yards off the freeway. It's east of I-15, about five miles north of the Jean exit, and seven miles south of the Sloan exit.

This bit of "public art" has been standing since May 2016. Originally intended to be displayed for two years, its stay has been extended through the end of 2018, and may stay longer.

I'm actually not a fan of rock standing, in general. In fact, I think it absolutely detracts from the sense of place when people feel compelled to leave evidence of their passing, in the form of a pile of rocks. I kind of hate what has happened at Burbank Peak, for example.

But I suppose if you're going to do a bright, random pile of rocks, sure, why not? It's a big desert, and if I want to ignore them, I can drive on by, looking the other way.

However, as I drive I-15 on the way to or through Las Vegas quite frequently, and occasionally do use the casino in Jean as a bathroom break, I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually actually stop here.

On this Friday, I had gotten a reasonably early start, so traffic wasn't an issue. Also, the winds were whipping, so folks weren't staying too long. Well, sure, you still have plenty of people trying to get selfie and expressive poses in front of the rocks, but it wasn't obnoxiously crowded, as I had seen, in the past.

I have to admit, once I was standing there, yeah, the colorful rocks were kind of cool. And if I was so inclined, maybe a skyscape shot from there might look interesting (although the website says no tripods are allowed onsite, so that wouldn't be possible, anyway). As it was, I just snapped some cell phone shots, stretched my lets for about fifteen minutes, then continued on my way.

Anyway, I'm several hiking events behind in my posts, so I figured I'd get this one up, today. More to follow soon, hopefully!