Meadows

Yay for scenic views! Not much to say here...a picture is worth a thousand words or something like that, right?

More surveys and meadow searches. We saw a couple bears munching in the meadow when we first arrived. Luckily they were on the other side of the meadow and didn't hang around for too long.

The sunset wasn't half bad either.

Butterflies and Wildflowers

So, Saturday I went on a little hike down Lumsden road. Alright, I drove down the road and then went on a hike if you want to get technical. It is somewhat amazing my car made it down and back again. Anyway, the wildflowers are starting to make an appearance so the hillsides are beginning to change colors.

I have yet to identify most of the flowers I've seen but I can tell you this guy is a Shooting Star. Nice!

Whenever the sun came out the butterflies started going crazy. Painted Ladies are everywhere right now. There were a few other fun ones that I managed to stalk down... Sara Orangetip and a Bramble Green Hairstreak. I saw some others but they evaded the camera. Sneaky little buggers.

He kind of blends in...Can you see him? Geez, I totally need to invest in a better zoom.

Get this. The next day (that would be Sunday) I woke up to everything being covered in snow! One day I'm looking at wildflowers and stalking butterflies and the next day there is snow and rain and hail. Not a ton, and it melted by the end of the day but still kind of nutty.

Sage and Sierra

Mountain Sage is the local coffeeshop that we all frequent, meaning we go everyday like clockwork. Haven't missed a day yet since I've been here. Pretty fantastic. Many hours are spent at the Sage...many, many, many...I should probably get a handle on the coffee addiction but then what would I do with all my time?

Ryan moonlighting (or is it daylighting) as a barista.

Not that you can tell from the picture but that there coffee cup is approximately the size of a soup bowl and full of mocha deliciousness. Yes, everyday.An random assortment of scenery.

Did I mention I get paid to wander around these places?

Full moon (or close to it) pictures of the valley and half dome. Can you tell it's night time? eh? Well it is, trust me on this one.


The other night we went up to one of our meadows to do a survey but managed to forget some of the more important pieces of equipment. Long story, short...we listened to Spotted Owls and looked for frogs and newts instead. California Newts are gearing up for spring if you know what I'm saying. We found quite a few of them wandering around. Pretty darn cute little buggers. Pacific Chorus Frogs have been going off like crazy recently too which can make it rather difficult to hear owls at times.

Snow? Really?

Alright, so maybe to some people this isn't a big deal but for those of us (and/or just me) from the South, snow is kind of a big deal. Particularly large amounts of it. Within the first couple of days of being out here I woke up one day to a winter wonderland. Lots of fluffy white stuff. I mean, not tons, really a couple inches but everything was white. Of course the sun proceeded to come out and by noon 90% of it was gone.
Not so in the higher elevations though. Snowshoeing...now there's a crazy activity. We, and by we I mean the other people I spend ALL of my time with (and by that I mean the other kids on the owl crew, Teresa, Lynn and Ryan) went up to Glacier Point and went on a little hike/shoe (?). Not sure how to use that terminology...I have never seen that much snow in my life. Going to tropical locations in the winter months probably hasn't helped that situation any. ANYWAY, it was a lot of snow.
The best part about snowshoeing is when there isn't actually enough snow and and you end up making all kinds of horrible noises walking on a road with snowshoes on. Awesome. Hiking around snowy meadows at night is borderline a-mazing though, so it makes up for the occasional grating, scraping noises. I'm thinkin someone needs to invent pop-out snowshoes. Kind of like those shoes with the wheels...what are they called? eh...but really, who wouldn't want retractable snowshoes? Genius, really. Man, that's why they pay me the big bucks.

Out West

Hey Everyone! That's right. I'm back on the West Coast. Yosemite to be slightly more exact. The drive across the country was, well, somewhat rushed but that's how I roll I guess. Can't say I remember much about the eastern third of the drive, except that traffic in Atlanta is no fun particularly if you hit it at rush hour. Unless of course you enjoy sitting on the highway and not moving for extended periods of time. Me...not so much.

Made a couple pit stops in Texas and saw more dead skunks than I really care to talk about. I'm not entirely sure there are any left living. Pretty sure they have all been run over by now.













White Sands National Monument, now there's a crazy place. Fairly surreal and very white. It also has the added bonus of being a missile test site. But really.












































Northern Arizona...a little snow action. Too bad I can't ski to save my life because I could have taken advantage of driving by all that. Of course that would require actually stopping the car for more than 32 seconds. Lovely to drive through though.






















Did a drive by or drive through, if you will, of the Mojave. Kind of feel like I am a month or two too early since everything is still brown and dead. Didn't look quite as nice as the postcards all covered in wildflowers and what not. Started to hike up some gigantor sand dunes but being on a time crunch I had to bail on making it to the top. What can you do?






























So, yeah. Made it to Groveland on March 1st which, if you do the math, means I've been out here for a whole two weeks. Let the games begin.