On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Scheduling change this week! This week we will have 3 of the 4 final posts from Captain C. Winter Wren will be next week!
Albatrossity
This will be the final installment of images from my late-September trip west to California; next week will be something entirely different. Well, probably not; it will probably be birds of Flyover Country, the usual fare when I have not been on a recent excursion elsewhere.
First up is another look at the subtle beauty of the Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) in Great Basin NP. This is a species that is not common even in parts of the country where it is regularly found; so it deserves an encore. The pale blues that these guys wear, like the pale blues of a Mountain Bluebird, are a reminder of the wild blue-sky places that still exist in our country. Click here for larger image.
The high elevation aspen foliage in Great Basin NP were just as spectacular as the colors in the eastern Sierra the day before. I lucked out with the timing of this trip. Click here for larger image.
More aspens, and a cobalt-blue mountain sky. Click here for larger image.
The main attraction here seems to be the road up to Mt. Wheeler and all the hiking trails that emanate from the end of the road. This is Wheeler, and you can see the remnants of last winter’s snows in the cirque below. The Scenic Drive up to the peak area closes in the winter, and is currently closed for the season. I am certain that there is probably more snow there now then when I took this picture! Click here for larger image.
Downhill, the Scenic Drive offers some stunning vistas to the east, toward Utah. And it is a good road for my hybrid vehicle; I gained 19 miles worth of battery charging just coasting down that road. That is a record so far, and got me well into Utah before the gasoline engine engaged again. Click here for larger image.
Here is a map of my trip that afternoon, a 4+ hour drive ending up east of Salt Lake City, so that I could avoid the morning traffic in that metropolis. I spent 6 months on sabbatical at the University of Utah, and suspected that the traffic scene was even worse now! Click here for larger image.
There is a blue blob on that map, in central Utah just south of my route. It is named Lake Sevier, but the part that I could see was just an enormous salt flat. There may be water in that lake at some time of the year, but not in October, as far as I could tell. Click here for larger image.
And one final bird, seen in Utah on the side of the road. A first-year Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) of the western (calurus) subspecies, looking proud and regal as only a raptor can. Click here for larger image.
Don L
Oh, man, that hawk looks regal. “As only a raptor can” is right. Great pictures, as always.
eclare
What an interesting trip!
SteveinPHX
Thank you for the photos! Both scenery & birds!
Trivia Man
Great shots of a very lightly traveled corner of the world. I moved away 25+ years ago and constantly pine for the basin and range of utah. Allow me to add a few sweeteners to anyone considering this trip.
Lake Sevier is indeed an ephemeral lake, IIRC the largest in the US and possibly the largest in the world. Full it is something like 1 meter deep, but for large stretches of time it is bone dry. Always has been, not a human caused catastrophe.
Notice the town of Delta on the map. West of there you find Notch Peak. The sheer vertical face is notable from about 50 miles away. Again, a world class oddity. Something like 1,000’ foot 90 degree drop.
Also nearby are the world class trilobite beds. There once were public access points where you could literally drive up to them and stoop over to collect trilobite fossils. Some staked claims where people made a living harvesting a huge variety of species and enough top notch examples to make a living at it.
Thanks for the birds and scenery.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: Notch Peak: 2,200 foot vertical, second only to El Cap in North America.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: It looks like the quarry I remember is now commercialized. U-Dig Fossils charges $25 for 2 hours and exposes new shale daily. If you like trilobites… well worth the effort.
MCat
Thank you. Great photos. Just love the blue jay. And that hawk! I look forward to your photos each Monday.
Betty Cracker
Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing them!
Scout211
Thank you for all the Great Basin National Park photos. We love that national park and have camped there numerous times in the past.
Minor corrections. It’s Wheeler Peak, not Mt. Wheeler. And in the photo of the Peak, the snow there (I believe) is actually the tiny remnants of the Wheeler Peak Cirque Glacier. We’ve taken that hike up to the glacier and I highly recommend it. The ancient bristlecone pine trees on that trail are beyond amazing and beautiful. We’ve hiked up to the top of Wheeler Peak and the views are amazing but the hike to the glacier was far more memorable with the ancient bristlecone pines.
Thanks for memories, Albatrossity.
Winter Wren
Beautiful captures!
cope
Wonderful pictures of beautiful parts of the country, thanks.
When I was doing well site work in the general area, besides trilobite hunting, another place to collect cool stuff is Topaz Mountain where you could go in and wrest topaz and other crystals from the volcanic rock. Good times.
Thanks Albatrossity for again reminding me that I have had the immense fortune to spend lots of quality time in this part of the country.
Xavier
One of the most soul-stirring sights is the dark blue of a high altitude sky against yellow aspens or the dark green of pines.
Trivia Man
@Scout211: did you ever tour Lehman Cave? Once a day they offered tge tour by candlelight. Excellent choice.
Scout211
Yes! We typically camped at the campground next to Lehman Caves and did the tour every time we visited. We love that tour.
KatKapCC
That hawk definitely has a bit of a “Can I help you?!” look on its face :D
Madeleine
i saw a red tailed hawk on the fire escape of the building next door a couple days ago.
Thanks for all these photos of your trip to a large part of the country I would not have an opportunity to see otherwise. They are much appreciated!
Trivia Man
@KatKapCC: I heard “try me” or “go ahead. Move.”
Dan B
I went to Wheeler Peak forty or more years ago on a trip through Eastern Oregon, Winnemucca, Ely and the peaks adjacent. So much empty country and beautiful forest on the flanks of Wheeler Peak, one of the highest peaks in Nevada, if not the highest. Time to Google.
Dan B
@Dan B: Wheeler is the second highest summit in Nevada. Boundary Peak on the California Nevada line is 100 feet taller. It’s the northernmost peak of the White Mountains
Great photos
As a landscape contractor I planted Bristlecone Pines. They’re craggy looking even as very young trees.
cckids
Love, LOVE Great Basin – we used to camp there at least once a year when we lived in Vegas. It has some of the darkest night skies in the continental US; one of the most memorable nights of my life was spent there, watching the Leonid meteor shower; just dozens of shooting stars, for hours. Magical!
Yutsano
That hawk is trying to decide if you’re tasty.