Not Even ONE Snake!

We went for a hike in the desert. Drove a short distance out of Pahrump down Wheeler Pass Rd., pulled over and started walking. Russell led the way, looking for all of the sunning snakes who were surely enjoying this warm, sunny day. We walked nearly 3 miles, through gullies, over ridges, even under a fence! We saw a number of healthy looking jack rabbits and 1 dead turtle(shell only). The bird I noticed on the way back to the car made me realize we hadn't seen any of them either, until the end.

We got to take advantage of what all the snakes missed; a beautiful day in the desert! We hiked through scattered creosote, some barrel cactus, yucca, and assorted scrub. The ground was rock and gravel covered dirt and sand. Easy walking!

Our goal was to walk from the car to the base of the nearest mountain(hill, really), with no apparent obstacles to stop us. The fence was our first and easiest obstacle. As veterans of barbed-wire, we made quick work of the horse fence. It was unclear if we were moving onto or off of private property, but didn't really worry about it. The gullies were just washes that gradually got deeper and wider. Then we got to one that caused us to actually navigate a way across, walking downhill to make our way down and then back up. This one was over 6 feet deep and at least twice that wide, but with enough slope at places to allow us across fairly easily.

The next gully brought our walk to a stop. It was not just deeper and wider, but had cliff-like drops on both sides. We walked a bit to look for a way across before reaching a bold conclusion: The mountain we were approaching was going to look much the same half a mile closer as it did from our current position. It was time to turn around, short of the goal to touch the mountain.

This top picture shows the gully that turned us around. The bottom one is from back at the car to show where we had been.

The larger goals of being together, getting exercise, and enjoying the day were fully met!