Sunday

From the looks of the rare mama Leopard lizard, Base Camp is going to have babies.

Saturday

Friday Sunset

Flowers by Andrea

Prickly Pear, Dwarf Lupine, Cactus Flower, and Barrel Cactus.

Out There Somewhere

From Dead Horse Point, out there somewhere is the lodge.

Gold Bar Beach

Tom returns to Gold Bar Beach where he and friends made a controlled crash into the rocks and then got flipped over and into the water. First is where the kayaks landed and then flipped, second is the first overhang Tom held on to while waiting for help and then swept to the second overhang where Jim, Will, and Pete eventually pulled him up. While walking to the last overhang, Tom slips on some loose sand and almost slides into the river in the same spot. Ms Colorado is lonely and looking for company. It won't be long. Somebody will make a mistake.

Dead Horse Point

Gooseneck

From directly across to above.

Thelma and Louise Point

Andrea, Shelly, and Tom visit Thelma and Louise Point. The Saddle across from Base Camp can be seen in the background. A few hours later they visit Dead Horse Point and look down on Thelma and Louise Point which is the intersection of roads below. Canyonlands Overlook which has a saddle of it's own and took four wheel drive to get to is upper left and the Needles Overlook is center left in the distance.

Old and New

While out searching for critters who's tracks are millions of years old, Tom finds one not so old and hurries him across the road to not get run over.

Needles Overlook

Andrea, Shelly, and Tom finish off a day of Overlooks and some four wheel drive jeeping to get to one of them with maybe the most spectacular of them all, Needles Overlook.

Canyonlands Overlook

Dave Minor Overlook

First picture shows the Catacomb Rock (Wind Caves) center just this side of the river. Pyramid Butte just the other side of the river and slightly left and Dead Horse Point top center.

Hatch Point (Top of the Anti Cline)

Andrea, Shelly, and Tom visit Hatch Point. The road going up and coming down Hurrah, the Pot Ash Plant in the distance, and Base Camp just this side of the widest spot in the river.

The Color of the Canyonlands

Whip Snake

Kobae is not the only one looking for a meal on this day.

Dwarf Lupin

Kobae has been eating Dwarf Lupin all day, every day, for a week. He takes a one day break and is right back at it. Tom thinks Kobae is stoned.

The Red Sky

With 60 mile an hour winds the red sand takes to the sky.

Always Something

Morning comes and Tom hears the baaa of one of the sheep in trouble coming from the cliffs. As Tom scrambles up the cliffs he sees the new ewe stranded. Louise and Pinto, with lots of experience in the cliffs run up to where she is and then turn around and show her how to get down, which she promptly does. It's quiet again. Then Tom hears a roar coming from Kobae's pen. Once or twice a year, Kobae eats something that doesn't agree with him, (two inch piece of tile, necktie, packing peanuts, gravel, paper towel, five year old camel crap.....). Tom has tried to help by putting water down him, romaine lettuce, and cucumbers with no luck. Kobae just has to gut it out on his own. It's not a pleasant sight or sound and can last off and on for hours.

It's Time

Tom opens the gate and Pinto, Louise, and ....hmmm, didn't come up with a name for the third one yet, are free to run. Last year they would come by the lodge a few times a week and Tom saw them periodically around the property. This year he'll be looking for signs the ewes are pregnant to get them back in the pen and certainly before deer and big horn season starts so as not to go through the nightmare of last year again.

The following takes place between 10am and 11am

Third Brightest Light in the Sky

International Space Station comes into view from 9:28 to 9:30 over a cloudless canyon lands sky. Crescent moon, Jupiter below that, and the lodge at the bottom of the hill.

You Would Have Been Wrong

You might have thought after the rainbow display above the Anti Cline that Mother Nature was through for the evening.

Rainbows

As the rain falls the sun eventually begins to break through. The Anti Cline is lit up by the rainbow and then it forms into a double rainbow.

The Heat

While the temperature underground remains at 56 degrees constant, Base Camp is still having nights in the low forties. Tom can't get heat into the tunnel that Kobae has dug as it goes too far down and curves to the right so Kobae is out of sight and reach, plus, heat rises. Tom has strung an extension cord and lamp with a heat emitter into Kobae's abode. Tom climbs into his home each night to put a makeshift wall across the front of it to keep the heat in. Each night, Kobae charges out of the tunnel to fight Tom (because he has issues, well, they both do). Once Kobae emerges from the tunnel he feels the heat from above, stops to absorb it, eventually falling asleep under the emitter, keeping him warm all night. It is completely dark in Kobae's home. The light you see is from the camera flash.

The End

Arriving at the top of the rockfall, Tom sees the big horn would have had to make an eight foot jump onto a narrow ledge with a three foot overhang. Not possible. Tom doubles back twenty feet and finds the only other possible out is about an 8 foot straight up jump on slick rock. It appears less possible than the first option. Tom doesn't think he can even reach high enough to get a handhold and try and lift himself up, so returns to the first option, no way. Back at the lodge Tom reviews the tape and the big horn did the 8 foot straight up jump, at an angle, on slick rock.

The Middle

The Beginning

Repeat Rock Acrobats

This video was posted on April 10th. Reposted today because in the video Tom says he's going to see if he can climb where the big horn went. Though a little hard to see, focus on where they come out, as Tom will be attempting to replicate their climb in the next few posts.

Stuff

Kobae ate all the Dwarf Lupin on the property last year but it has returned with a vengeance and he again tries to eat every bloom (purple). In a surprise, the beach has begun to return, normally that happens in July. Hogan #2 (Paul) is completed. Hogan #1 (Hulk) acquires a bit of furniture. The first desert cactus blooms. Usually the flower doesn't last more than a week or two. (We'll keep track of this one).

The Day

Mystery

Something, pushed this clingy piece of sand, up hill, against the wind, and then abandoned it.

Not Slow Motion

Going Home

After a day of grazing and eating most everything on the property Kobae heads for home. Each year his door is made larger thinking he can't possibly grow anymore. About time to do it again.

Sunday Good Night From the Canyonlands