created by the tiny and delicate craterlets made by raindrop impacts on a fine-grained surface, seen here on mud-cracked clayey-silts in the dry bed of Castle Creek.
Largest craters are only 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter.
Danger on the trail...
early this morning when this unusually reddish rattler became annoyed and clearly announced its presence as I rolled by on the singletrack.
Hopi rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis nuntius), a subspecies of the prairie rattlesnake.
UPDATE: From Chris, a local BLM biologist: “Hopi rattlesnake makes sense for the color and smaller size. The taxonomy has changed recently so the subspecies is no longer recognized and is instead considered a dwarf variant of the prairie rattler.“
The guts of the Moab Fault...
exposed for all to see near the entrance to Arches National Park, just above the Visitors Center. A chunk of the Moenkopi Formation is trapped in the brecciated zone in between a pair of extensional faults (yellow lines). More than a half-mile of vertical displacement has occurred across this zone, that is, the Entrada Sandstone lies considerably higher in the stratigraphic section than the Honaker Trail Formation, so the relative offset is UP on the left and DOWN on the right across the fault zone in the view seen below.
View is towards the northwest. Note the tour bus on the park road on the right side of image. Yellow lines are normal faults with downthrown blocks on the right side of each.
An exploding population of squirrels...
has invaded our high desert community this spring, the most I have ever seen in 22 years. A local litter has just begun to venture out and they have all discovered the ground feeding stations. Super cute but destructive varmints, especially around the house.
Juvenile rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus).
Postcards from the trails...
around Castle Valley National Park with images taken on a nicely cool but blustery morning.
Broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae).
Quite a difference overnight...
in air quality as a persistent smoky airmass clears the canyons, seen here in comparative images into Professor Valley from a high vantage point on my daily ride.
THE DAY BEFORE around 7:45 am MDT.
TODAY around 8:00 am MDT where one can easily spy Fisher Towers six miles (9.6 km) away.
Flipping 5,000 miles...
on the Trek hardtail eMTB on the return leg of this morning’s ride. These bikes don’t ride themselves!
Summer solstice triple sunrise...
as captured this morning from the east end of Buchanan Lane in Castle Valley. The sun rises (#1) and is eclipsed by Baby Carriage Rock, it rises (#2) again and is eclipsed by Castleton Tower, only to rise (#3) a final time to mark the longest day of the year. It’s gonna be hot, too.
Composite of three stacked images, captured between 6:52 am and 7:41 am MDT.
UPDATE: This image is highlighted in this week’s Castle Valley Comments.
A gorgeous but poisonous southwestern plant...
that expresses enormous white blossoms larger than the palm of your hands, sacred datura is sometimes used as a narcotic and hallucinogen by Native Americans.
Sacred datura (Datura wrightii) in Lions Park.
Jimson Weed, oil on linen by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1936. Image courtesy Indianapolis Museum of Art.
A highly hazy horizon...
nearly obscures Castle Valley in the distance, likely due to wildfires burning near Bryce Canyon and in northern Arizona. Here’s the view across the sandstone expanse of Arches National Park caught early this morning from the Moab Brands mountain bike trail system.
Parriott Mesa, the Priest & Nuns, Castleton Tower and Adobe Mesa are all visible 15.5 miles (~25 km) away from this vantage point on the Moab Brands mountain bike trail system.
Priming and painting...
one of the larger missiles in the arsenal during these hot days with low humidity.
The Apogee Zephyr is a four inch diameter rocket that flies with a 38 mm engine mount and should easily get to a mile high.
The Zephyr twins, the larger of which still needs black paint on the nose cone and a final clear coat, but it’s ready to fly. The smaller has flown frequently on “D” and “E” rocket engines to nearly 1,000 ft (~300 m).
Lighting up the feeding stations...
with their brilliant plumage, their flashing blue heads really stand out at dusk.
Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena).
In significantly reduced numbers...
this spring despite large flocks visiting the ground feeding stations during winter, the melodic songs of this member of the blackbird family have been missed. Here’s one today perched at the summit of a cottonwood doing his thing.
Male Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) belting out its song.
A golden sunrise...
for Father’s Day.
Winged fruits of different morphologies...
assist these desert-adapted plants in seed dispersal by the wind. It’s feathers versus helicopter blades.
Cliffrose (Purshia mexicana).
Single leaf ash (Fraxinus anomala).
Evidence of night roosting bats...
can be found in the form of guano pellets and insect parts, dropped when insectivorous bats take a short break from their nocturnal foraging activities. If you ate half your body weight in insects every night you’d need to take a break and evacuate your bowels, too.
Bat guano is an excellent fertilizer and wars have been fought over this precious resource. Sweep these nuggets of concentrated nitrogen up and toss them in your garden.
An early morning start...
to my daily rides is increasingly necessary as it’s heading toward 100° F by the weekend.
This morning: Panorama of the Round Mountain Annex to Castle Valley National Park. (Click on image to expandify.)
The singletrack at 7:45 am MDT. Cool. Quiet. Critters. Sublime.
The snow is nearly gone...
and summertime storm clouds blossom over the high La Sal Mountains. Less than two weeks until the summer solstice.
UPDATE: Peak flow on the Colorado River has likely just occurred, capping an unremarkable spring runoff. Here’s the one year hydrograph for the Colorado River at the Cisco gage showing that this year’s peak flow (blue line) is one-third of last year’s value (brown line) and less than half the median value (dotted line).
Monarch butterflies rely exclusively on milkweed plants...
for laying their eggs and feeding their caterpillars as it is the only food source they can consume. Here’s one in the riparian zone of Castle Creek.
Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa).
Counting every drop...
of legally diverted water from Castle Creek, now being performed digitally and remotely since the Utah Department of Natural Resources has just installed a real-time monitoring point using a solar powered sonic water level sensor and radio transmitter. Previously, someone would have to visit this site and visually read the staff gage in the Parshall flume through which the water is flowing in order to calculate the flow. This new system is undoubtedly calibrated to the old staff gage, and likely radios the data in real-time, or perhaps daily.
Newly installed electronic gaging station next to Castle Creek above the town of Castle Valley. Note the metal Parshall flume box through which the water is flowing, away from the viewer in this image.
The sonic water level sensor at the upstream end of the Parshall flume. Note staff gage on side of flume.
The diverted water is claimed under three water rights granted in 1885, 1891 and 1933 for 2.0, 1.033 and 1.9172 cfs (cubic feet per second) respectively according to Utah DNR records.
UPDATE: An additional remote water gauging station has been installed on the 14-inch diameter iron pipe that transfers water from the point of diversion to the fields for irrigation lower in the valley. This is about 1.1 miles below the point of diversion seen above.