Yesterday I returned to the Rockies, as is my wont. Back from Colorado’s prairies, I went with a Sierra Club group to hike the Old Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park.

This is one of my favorite trails, and I previously hiked it at least three times. Starting at 11,800 feet just below the Alpine Visitor Center, the trail descents gradually to the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, about 1,000 feet lower. The first half of the trail is on the tundra above tree line.

Each time in the past that I hiked the Old Ute Trail I hitchhiked back. But since I hiked with a group of a dozen people in four vehicles yesterday, we were able to position vehicles at both ends of the trail. That took some time and we left late, not arriving at the trailhead until 7:30. Consequently, we finished the hike well after dark, using headlamps for the last half hour or so.

I went with my neighbor, Nancy, in her car, since my SUV is still in the shop to get a new fuel tank. Her car’s thermometer recorded the temperature in Boulder at 82 degrees and at 52 degrees at the trailhead. The wind made it feel even colder, but I was dressed for the occasion.

Because of the late start, we had enough sun for photographs only during the first half hour or so. But these images were a satisfactory record of the trip.

A Pond at Forest Canyon Pass

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A Yellow-Bellied Marmot

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A Well-Disguised Ptarmigan

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Although my SUV broke down on my way back home from the Pawnee National Grassland this week, I’m still a lucky man.

I was lucky to break down in Greeley, Colorado, the only sizable city on my route between the grassland and my home in Boulder. My Toyota Highlander stalled at a busy intersection, so I called AAA on my cell phone and told the operator that I smelled gasoline. She considered it an emergency and called the fire department, the police, and a tow truck driver, who quickly arrived in that order. They discovered that I had a hole in my SUV’s fuel tank. This was result, I guess, of driving almost 1,000 miles in the previous four days on dirt roads that were often muddy and where I may have bottomed out on some rock.

The Toyota dealership in Greeley was just a mile from where my SUV stalled. After the tow truck driver took me and my SUV there, the dealership quickly gave me their diagnosis — an estimate of $1,050 and a four-day wait for the parts. After renting a 2010 Corolla from the dealer, I was on my way home just two hours after my SUV stalled.

Years ago on a lonely road in Africa I was able to fix a leak in my car’s fuel tank with soap until I could get to a mechanic who repaired it. Nowadays, we replace, not repair.

But I was lucky this time too. The experience was expensive, but it was only money. I got through it safely and with very little loss of time.

I was also lucky this time as I explored the Pawnee National Grassland looking for photographic beauty. I found what I sought, although my best shots kept me waiting until the last moment.

This was my first extended visit to the Colorado’s prairies. I explored the 30-by-60 mile area where this national grassland protects 193,060 acres of shortgrass prairie. This is the western end of the Great Plains, that broad expanse of North American prairie, steppe, and grassland running about 500 miles from east to west and 2,000 miles from north to south.

A View of the Prairie within Pawnee National Grassland

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A Rainbow During a Rain Storm in the Grassland

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Early this morning I went back to the national wildlife refuge at the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal for the third time in the past couple of years. This time I was able to see a lot more of its almost 17,000 acres of open prairie. One of the largest of our 584 national wildlife refuge, it dwarfs the island of Manhattan, which by comparison is 14,478 acres.

The refuge offered free photo safaris by van that in three hours took eight of us much farther than the limited trail section that is otherwise the only area accessible to the public. Consequently, I was also able to see much more of the refuge’s wildlife than ever before.

Besides thousands of prairie dogs and many rabbits, we also saw lots of both white-tailed and mule deer.

Two Young Bucks in the Bush

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This More Mature Buck Also Still has Velvet on its Antlers

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A Coyote

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A Bison Calf Nurses

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A Bison Takes a Dust Bath

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We also saw many birds, including these pelicans. Just then, a great blue heron flew by:

Four White Pelicans and One Great Blue Heron

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A Young Red-Tailed Hawk

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A Juvenile Burrowing Owl

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Even though I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to take this photo safari, it was worth it. I will certainly do it again.

My good luck held. After my exploration of Great Basin National Park in Nevada with my friend Mark, I had a few free days before I had to be back home. But I thought that I had already seen all of Nevada’s great natural beauty.

I was wrong, as I discovered when I happened to see some Leanin’ Tree postcards in a gas station mini-mart. I took note of them because the Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art in Boulder is one of my favorites. One of its postcards of Ruby Lake opened my eyes to the beauty that I might see there. Immediately I decided to go well out of my way to visit the Ruby Lake Natural Wildlife Refuge 150 miles northwest of Great Basin.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages 584 of these refuges. Every state has at least one of them. In fact, Nevada has seven.

While these refuges protect more than 200 species of fish, I would rather eat than photograph them. The refuges also protect 220 species of mammals and 250 species of reptiles and amphibians. But their great strength is their more than 700 species of birds. And now that my friend Sharon has turned me on to birding and I have a long telephoto lens, I really wanted to photograph birds after seeing so few of them on my trip to Nevada.

Ruby Lake is the outstanding bird refuge in Nevada. More than 220 species of birds regularly visit it. They have it easy, since they can fly there. People like me have to drive miles down dirt roads to reach this isolated outpost of birding. I went there on Tuesday, July 6, when Mark had to return to his job in Los Angeles. The nearest towns to Ruby Lake are Ely, Nevada, about 95 miles southeast, and Elko, Nevada, about 60 miles northwest. Few if any gas stations, restaurants, or motels are any closer.

But I am so glad that I went out of my way to see and photograph the birds of Ruby Lake. I finally got a chance to see many of Nevada’s birds.

A White-Faced Ibis

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An American Avocet

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My friend Mark and I bid farewell to Great Basin National Park in Nevada with our hike on the evening of Monday, July 5, to Lexington Arch. We set off to the arch at 4 p.m. and reached the overlook three hours later after driving about three-quarters of an hour to the trailhead and then making a rather easy but continuous climb of 1.7 miles. We reached the trailhead at 7,440 feet up a dirt road south of the guest ranch where we stayed. Then we hiked 830 feet to the overlook.

We had carefully planned the timing of our visit to the arch, but we hadn’t been able to learn what direction the overlook of the arch faced. Our first view of it disappointed us. The trail took us from the east, and our first view of the arch looked into the sun. We were not able to see through the arch to the sky beyond. Still, we did see bright sunlight streaming through the arch.

Lexington Arch from the Overlook

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The arch is the equivalent of six-stories of limestone on a hillside above Lexington Creek. Although I have seen and photographed many natural arches and bridges in the West, sandstone, not limestone, form almost all of them.

At the overlook, we noticed a much less obvious trail leading down toward the arch. Hoping that the trail would take us to the west side of the arch before the sun went down, we immediately set forth and went perhaps another half mile. We were in luck. There was the arch — mostly in shadows — but partly in the sun with the valley below in view through the arch.

Valley View

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Next, Mark and I took turns shooting each other standing under the arch itself.

Mark under Lexington Arch

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Me Under Lexington Arch

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Returning to the overlook, which has a bench as well as  view, we ate our picnic dinner of cold cuts. Finally, we hiked back down the trail to my SUV in the dark, reaching the guest ranch most before 10. Both of us have headlamps and needed them.

We had the arch to ourselves, not seeing another sole the entire evening. The hike was a fitting conclusion for our visit to Great Basin National Park, one of the most isolated national parks in the lower 48.

My friend Mark and I hiked the three-mile loop trail to two alpine lakes on the north flank of Wheeler and Jeff Davis peaks on July 5. This was the hike in Great Basin National Park that we postponed from the previous day because of drizzly weather on the mountain. But we had clear weather for our hike.

Jeff Davis Peak, Elevation 12,771, and Wheeler Peak, Elevation 13,065

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Teresa Lake, Elevation 10,230

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Stella Lake

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Parry's Primrose Grows by a Stream

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This was a hike worth the wait.

My friend Mark and I left Great Basin National Park for a while to celebrate the Fourth of July in the nearest city. We drove about 60 miles north to Ely, Nevada, population 4,000.

But on the way there, we drove up in the hills above Cave Lake State Park where we saw the biggest fields of flowers I have ever seen. Most of the flowers are Soft Arnica.

The View Down Canyon

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The View Up Canyon

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We drove on to Ely for a barbecue at the train depot followed by a ride in a historic train and culminating in a fireworks display. This was the first time in more than half a century that I had ridden on a train.

Engine 93, a steam engine built more than a century ago, led us out a few miles from the town.

Engine 93 is Ready to Go

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Waiting for the Train

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“N.C.C.Co.” on Engine 93 stands for the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company. In January 1909 the American Locomotive Company built the engine at its Pittsburgh works for that mining company. Today the White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation, a non-profit organization,  operates Engine 93 as a part of the former Nevada Northern Railway, which earlier had been a subsidiary of the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company.

Mark and I sat in the open car at the end of the train except for the caboose. Our hair got covered with cinders, but the open car offered by far the best photography.

The first hike that my friend Mark and I made in Great Basin National Park last week was to see a grove of bristlecone pines growing on the slopes of Wheeler Peak. We got an early start, but didn’t get to those ancient trees that grow at tree-line (around 11,000 feet)  before about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 3. So we weren’t there at first light.

I wondering if the 3 1/2 mile hike would be worth it for the photography. Any hike is worth it for the exercise and to be out in nature!

I knew that we couldn’t capture the quality of light shining on the bristlecone pines that I had photographed a week earlier near the road leading to the top of Mount Evans, Colorado. That hike was at last light, which can be equally good for photography.

Seeing these weathered survivors in Nevada was nevertheless awe inspiring. Here researchers found the oldest non-clonal organism on this planet. That bristlecone pine tree nicknamed Prometheus was probably more than 5,000 years old when it died about 50 years ago. The Methuselah tree in California’s White Forest is 200 to 300 years younger.

The oldest identified tree that Mark and I saw is “only” 3,210 years old. According to the plaque at its base this tree was born in 1230 B.C.  This was the time of the Exodus, when the Jews escaped from Egypt and its pharaoh, Ramesses. At the same time the Achaeans conquer Troy. This was more than a century before King David ruled Israel.

This Bristlecone Pine was Born in 1230 B.C. and Still Lives

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I think of the next bristlecone pine as a “wild tree” because its branches go every which way. Technically a “wild tree” is one that has never been climbed, as Richard Preston wrote in one of the best books I ever read, The Wild Trees. Still, I doubt if anyone ever climbed this tree either before or after it died.

A Truly Wild Tree

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Finally, this relict seems to mimic one of Wheeler Peak’s peaks. Or vice versa.

Pine and Peak

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This hike was definitely worth the effort. I had long wanted to see these old bristlecone pines and feel particularly blessed to see two groves of these trees in a week.

Most people go to Great Basin National Park to experience what the call “Lehman Caves.” While Mark and I saw a lot more of the park above ground, we made sure to go down into the cave. It is, in fact, one cave in spite of its name. We toured the cave on the afternoon of Saturday, July 3.

Absalom Lehman, a local prospector and rancher, discover the cave in 1885. It is made of light gray and white limestone that is honeycombed by tunnels and galleries containing a spectacular array of stalactites (which hang down like an icicle) and stalagmites (which stick up).

Like every cave I’ve ever explored, this one was cold. Year round the temperature is 50 degrees. We made sure to dress warmly for our 1 1/2 hour visit.

Mark, a Serious Photographer, Carries His Canon 5D Mark II Camera

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We Saw Lots of "Popcorn"

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Many Stalactites and Stalagmites

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"The Parachute," the Cave's Iconic Scene

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Caves have an other-worldly aspect, although they are a part of our world. How strange is our world!

My friend Mark and I had nearly ideal weather for our visit to Great Basin National Park in Nevada last week. But early in the morning of Independence Day we set off for a hike in the park only to find heavy clouds and drizzle.

So we literally made a course correction. A weather map had shown me that clouds covered only a small area. And the previous day Mark had learned from a ranger of a great hike in the Mount Moriah Wilderness just a few miles north of the park.

After turning around and leaving the park, we reached the Hendrys Creek Trailhead by 8 a.m. in perfect hiking weather. Furthermore, we had the trail to ourselves. In fact, no one else had signed the trail register in the previous eight days.

We followed the creek up the valley for the next three hours, stopping regularly to admire the view and photographing it. The trail was easy except for three creek crossings each way.

Mark Enters the Wilderness

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Looking Up From the Canyon

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