To the desert and back

We had a fun and interesting day Saturday. Anette and I traveled to the West Desert with Jed, Cally, Harvey and Grey. We went all the way to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, which is about 20 miles past the Dugway geode beds. So it is about 110 miles each way and most of that is on gravel and dirt roads. We left a 9 and got back after 7.

It was lots of driving with plenty of pretty scenery. The desert was quite green most of the way. When we got to the geode beds, Harvey and Grey did not have much interest in looking for rocks. Cally brought their kites so they flew them for awhile. Then I caught a lizard and that became the only thing they cared about. We released the first lizard, which turned out to be a mistake because they both cried. I caught another one, and then they spent a lot of time fighting over who could hold the lizard. I tried to catch one more so they could each have one, but that didn’t happen. Eventually the lizard escaped which prevented him form suffering a cruel death at the hands of two little boys who loved it too much.

Harvey and I took a walk and found a big gopher snake, but I couldn’t catch it before it went down a hole. There were some cool little squirrels, but they hid in the bushes and Harvey couldn’t see them. I got close enough to touch one. It tried to hide by sticking its head into a bush, but most of its body was still poking out.

We had a picnic and I found a few cool rocks and some geode chunks. Most of the best dig sites were filled with water.

Fish Springs was cool. I had never been there before. It is really just a big marsh out in the middle of the desert. There is an 11-mile drive along dikes through the refuge. We saw lots of birds including pelicans, comorants, herons, geese and ducks. We also saw four coyotes. While we were there the wind picked up and a storm moved in so we started the long drive home. It rained most of the way back.

After church on Sunday we played outside with Harvey and Grey. It is warm and sunny but very windy. Grey loved playing with the geese. He would herd them with a stick and try to feed them various stuff. We also took some tractor rides.