is breaking out in the Castle Valley area right now. One has to admire a plant that can grow a meter-tall reproductive stalk each and every spring.
Narrowleaf yucca (Yucca angustissima) with Adobe Mesa looming above.
The former Mayberry peach orchard...
on the Colorado River was worked by Paul Mayberry using this classic 1962 tractor into the late 1990s, and it makes a terrific foreground subject for another Milky Way composition. The former orchard is now the eponymously named Mayberry Native Plant Propagation Center, its purpose is the testing and propagation of Colorado Plateau native plant seeds.
Squawking jays...
are really raising a racket today in the cottonwood trees.
Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica).
2,500 miles on the RadRover 5...
and it’s still as much fun to ride now as the day I received it last September. It’s the best thing to happen since my training wheels came off as a kid.
But! In the last two months I have had to: 1) replace a non-functioning battery charger, 2) replace the shifter lever (broken), 3) replace the left brake lever assembly (bell broken), 4) replace the rear tire (normal wear) and 5) replace brake pads (normal wear). Issues 1-3 were covered by the one year warranty at no charge to me, other than the frustration of having to deal with Rad Power Bikes’ poor customer service. The upside is that I’ve become a RPB master mechanic in the process.
The Navajo Sandsone...
is interpreted to be the result of wind deposition of large sand dunes during Triassic-Jurassic time (~ 200 Ma), and it provides some of the best “slickrock” surfaces in the Moab area for mountain biking.
Textbook trough cross-stratification indicative of an eolian (wind driven) depositional environment.
The Secret Spire, a hoodoo set on a rolling landscape of eroding Navajo Sandstone.
Spring Canyon Point...
provided a spectacular perch above the crumbling neck of Bowknot Bend on the deeply incised Labyrinth Canyon section of the Green River for sunset last night. I shot this before making my way back to Secret Spire for astrophotography later in the evening.
Secret Spire, a truly unique hoodoo, eroding from the Navajo Sandstone. The fragile formation is only about two meters in diameter at its base and about eight meters in total height.
Magnificent starscape...
last night at this Secret Spire.
Ripping and pulling conduit...
for fiber optic cable across my property as the Castle Valley community is finally on the cusp of entering the 21st century!
This single strand of glass will deliver telecommunications and Internet services when the “Valley lights up” in a few more weeks. I can’t wait to close my account with terrible/horrible Frontier Communications in favor of Emery Telcom!
Sweetly aromatic cliffrose...
is coming on strong and the nearby canyons are nicely fragrant, at least for a little while. It is unfortunate that you can’t scratch-n-sniff the image below to enjoy the experience.
Cliffrose (Purshia mexicana).
Finches behave like...
crack-addicted maniacs around the thistle feeder.
Having fun with the Milky Way...
in May around Castle Valley, Utah.
Great Basin gopher snake...
slithering across my driveway and approximately one meter in length. Although its markings resembles a rattlesnake, it lacks a rattle and is non-venomous.
Great Basin gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola), also known as the bull snake.
Fruita, Colorado claims to be...
both the dinosaur and mountain biking capital of western Colorado as the terrific sign on this grain elevator proudly suggests!
Sustained water flow...
on Mars is evidenced in the sedimentary landform in Jezero Crater, a river-dominated “Gilbert-type” delta system, as seen in this recent imagery from the Perseverance rover on Mars.
Annotated image captured on 7 May 2021 (Sol 77) by the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager. The thickness of the foreset bedded unit is difficult to determine, but it is at least many meters thick. Note the tangential lower contact between the foreset and bottomset beds.
Diagram illustrating the sedimentary processes and depositional architecture of a prograding (advancing) deltaic system (from research.net).
Busy bee on globemallow blossom...
Globemallow bee (Diadasia diminuta). The orange blossom is about 1 cm across!
Apricot globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua).
Spring bloom status update...
for the high desert of southeastern Utah.
Hopi blanketflower (Gaillardia pinnatifida).
Utah penstemon (Penstemon utahensis).
Narrowleaf yucca flowers (Yucca angustissima).
Aluminum mining...
in red rock canyon country.
Claret cup cactus...
produce some of the most striking flowers on the Colorado Plateau.
Claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus).
Yoga exercises...
at the heronry today on the Colorado River.
I am shooting these at a distance of ~150 yards, with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the Canon 500 mm f/4 EF lens with the EF 1.4x III extender for an effective focal length of 700 mm, on a tripod-mounted gimbal head. I am stunned at the optical quality and ability to acquire tack-sharp tracking focus of this camera/lens under, admittedly, near perfect lighting conditions.
Birds of Castle Valley...
gallery has been added today! Follow the hummingbird and head to the main menu and select Gallery and you’ll find it in the growing list.
Male Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri).