Big Baldy

Big Baldy is a very worthwhile, and fairly easy, hike in King's Canyon National Park (in California). It is only a couple of miles from the trail head (which is just a few miles from the park entrance on Highway 180) and climbs maybe 1,000 feet. The top of Big Baldy itself is just over 8,000 feet. We decided to make the effort the day before Thanksgiving.

There was a bit of snow in sections of the trail, which is to be expected in November at this elevation. But the trail was nice and the view on top was well worth the effort. We could see the backbone of the High Sierra to the east, rolling hills in every direction, and even the top of the coastal range far to the west (thanks to Drew's sharp eyes). The valley was hazy but air moving in from the west was clearing up the atmosphere. We watched as rain fell from isolated clouds all around us.

This is definitely a hike for young and old alike - for anyone who likes to be outside and enjoy a walk in the woods - as long as the weather permits. The picture below is of Drew, Jon, and Michael at the trail head.

Epargyreus clarus

Here's a picture of the silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus) that I found feeding among lupine near Altamont, Utah this last June. It is a large species, as skippers go, and quite attractive. It occurs throughout the western US and feeds on a number of legumes.

The second picture shows it feeding in flight - sliding its long proboscis into the uneven curves of a cupped-shaped hypanthium. This is quite impressive if you stop to think about it: a relatively heavy insect holding itself in midair and twisting its slender mouthparts through an undulating tunnel to get nectar. Nature seems to know what she's doing.

The Silver Beak Tanager

It occurred to me the other day while visiting the Memphis Zoo that there are a lot of fascinating creatures in the zoos of the world that ought to be more digitally recorded and available. There is a tremendous amount of history (can I call it natural history history?) and zookeeper expertise cloistered behind the fences of these animal parks that goes unrecorded. This is especially true, I think, of some of the smaller creatures that don't draw big crowds - but that might be unique organisms (or specialties) of a particular zoo.

So here is a picture of the silver beak tanager (Ramphocelus carbo) from northern South America, a creature that I have never seen in the wild and probably never will. Yet the good folks at the Memphis Zoo have taken care to make it available for visitors to see. What a beautiful bird.

Ceruchus punctatus

Here's a picture of Ceruchus punctatus one of the few stag beetle we get in California. It is only about half an inch long (maybe a bit more) - fairly small as stag beetles go, but still impressive.

Michael found it under the bark of a fallen pine at around 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada east of Bass Lake this year. It was June and the high country was just starting to open up for the year.

Ortholeptura valida

This attractive longhorn beetle (Ortholeptura valida) was fairly abundant this year in the Sierra Nevada between 5,000 and 7,000 feet.  This individual (measuring about an inch long , exclusive of the antennae) came to our light near Shaver Lake (above Fresno, California) a couple of moths ago. We also found a population above Wishon Reservoir (still Fresno County) in July.

Linsey and Chemsak (in the Cerambycidae of North America, Part VI. no. 2) list the host plants as Abies, Tsuga, Pinus, and Pseudotsuga. This individual probably came out of ponderosa pine or white fir - both fairly common around Shaver Lake q.v.

Erynnis species

This is an interesting dusky-wing skipper I found this summer in Altamont, Utah. My best guess is that it is a subspecies of Juvenal's dusky-wing (Erynnis juvenalis) but I'm not certain. These darker skippers often get overlooked and this is too bad. Look closely at the scale patterns on the wings. They are really very intricate.

I found this individual on an overcast summer day among the high desert sagebrush of northern Utah. This is a place that is frequently overlooked by nature-lovers. It can appear bleak at times - but this is an impression of trying to enjoy the area from a car travelling 70 miles an hour. If you get out and look around, you might be impressed.  

Graveyard Peak

Graveyard Peak is an infrequently climbed peak in the Sierra Nevada wilderness above Lake Edison (in the eastern end of Fresno County, California). I'm not quite sure what prompted me to climb it, other than a request from my son Michael to climb a mountain this year before the cold weather set in. Graveyard Peak caught my attention as I glanced over several maps looking for possibilities. I'm very glad we climbed it. Not that it was easy - in fact it was quite difficult. But the view along the way, and especially at the top, was indescribable.

Michael, Jon and I left Fresno at 5:00 yesterday morning and drove to Shaver Lake to pick up my friend Chad. We then drove another couple of hours along winding mountain roads to the Devil's Bathtub (an alpine lake) trailhead. It is at a parking area on the west side of the Lake Edison dam. The walk to Devil's Bathtub lake took us a couple of hours and was quite pleasant. It is 4 and a half miles from the trailhead and only climbs about 1,400 feet - not that bad of an ascent. As far as nice alpine Lake go, Devil's Bathtub is something to experience. It is much larger than I expected and has several nice camping areas. And the view is beautiful. You can see the lake with Graveyard peak in the background (upper right corner) in the group picture (below). 

The hike from the lake up to Graveyard Peak (visible above the lake) is quite a different story. It goes up at a steep angle and there is no trail. You have to climb over 2,000 feet through stones and dwarf manzanitas. The last 1,000 feet is all boulders with a few sandy areas between. It isn't easy. There is a trail up to Graveyard Lakes that takes you closer to the peak than the scramble above Devil's Bathtub. But the climb from Graveyard Lakes to the peak is much too steep and dangerous to try unless you're an experience climber.

We didn't risk climbing the last 100 feet to the precarious summit from the ridge. We stopped at the point where I took the picture (above). But the view from ridge was beyond description. We counted over a dozen visible alpine lakes and the long chain of the Sierra backbone along with countless other ridges and forests. We didn't want to come down.