Visiting NV, AZ, and UT this month

At the end of next week I'm headed out for a RV trip with my husband, 5 year old daughter, and six nieces & nephews ages 13-25. We did a similar (but slightly longer) trip with my parents in 2016, which inspired us to propose this trip with our awesome niecephews.

I'm looking forward to exploring these areas more, which are really very unfamiliar to me. When I turn on my iNaturalist eyes, I'm basically looking for things that are reproducing (flowers/fruits/mushrooms), moving (animals), or dead (easy to photograph!). I almost always use my iPhone 6S (with 10-15x macro if needed), but sometimes my husband will also have a camera with some longer lenses. I tend to focus on plants (like documenting everything I see blooming, ideally) and opportunistically observe other things as well.

We have a pretty tight schedule, but if anyone happens to be in these areas and it worked out to meet up, that would be fun. Also willing to train our 9 pairs of (novice) eyes on any taxa of special interest.

June 15- arrive in Las Vegas.
16- Neicephews arrive, pick up RV, camp at Valley of Fire SP.
17- Drive to Grand Canyon (North Rim). Stay at North Rim campground.
18- Explore North Rim.
19- Drive to Antelope Canyon & go on a tour. Stay in Page.
20- Drive to Zion NP (stop at Toadstool Hoodoos?). Stay in Zion NP/Springdale.
21- Explore Zion (hike The Narrows)
22- Explore Zion, drive back to Valley of Fire SP.
23- Leave early. Niecephews fly out, return RVs.
24- We depart Las Vegas early in the morning.

Tagging some folks who have made observations in/near the places we're going in case you have tips or are local:
Valley of Fire State Park: @lonnyholmes @tiwane @damontighe @jpalladini
North Rim: @lagoondon @isaac_krone @bosqueaaron @rlawrenz and @mapduck
Page, AZ area: @philippwickey @codyhough @abr @drjakuna
Zion National Park: I guess I don't need so many tips here since we were there 2 years ago, but here's what I saw there last time and let me know if there are other things I should keep an eye out for! @sea-kangaroo @thesunisbig @natureali @ryancooke @asemerdj @jay

Suggestions welcome!

Publicado el junio 7, 2018 03:34 MAÑANA por carrieseltzer carrieseltzer

Comentarios

Exciting places! When in Page make sure to stop at Horseshoe Bend. Most of the animals and plants you will see will be obvious due to the nature of low deserts and most of them wont be moving too fast so you'll have plenty of opportunities to take shots. While driving between Zion and Page make sure you stop and get a good look at Grand Staircase before it gets sold off entirely to private entities, its been a large topic of public and federal land use news the last year.

Publicado por codyhough hace casi 6 años

If your looking for cheap RVing then any of the places you see me mothing at night this year in your area of interest were all BLM locations where we just parked, camped and put up the DIY Moth Light. Lots of RV's in these locations.

Zion - definitely do the weeping wall. Lots of cool plants and herps there and trail is quick and easy for the little ones

Antelope - lower canyon and try to get a 11am tour to get the best light. The campground on the south side of Page is great. Horseshoe Bend is close by so you should hit that as well. Could do that same day as Antelope Canyon.

Publicado por damontighe hace casi 6 años

Valley of Fire is darn awesome. Just don't squat down on a sandy area to take a photo of an ant when you've already noticed sidewinder tracks... https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8274757 Also encountered a bunch of Bighorn sheep there, very close to the road, which was sweet. And one of the prettiest moths I've ever seen: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8276858

Publicado por tiwane hace casi 6 años

Hi Carrie, sounds like an awesome trip.
I was at the North Rim a couple weeks ago and walked from the North Rim to the South Rim. Lots of cool things to see (posted in iNaturalist), but I recommend for you around the visitor center you may see a Steller Jay and Kaibab Squirrel. Walk down the North Kaibab trail for as long as you have time. You will see lots of different plants. Point Imperial is arguable the best view of the North rim, you should see chipmunks and possibly hummingbirds. I also noticed lots of different flowers on sides of road when traveling to north rim.

Around Page, Lake Powell is always a nice place to cool off. Hire a boat and tour around.

Zion is one of my favourite places in Utah. Walk around the South Entrance visitor center, should should see lots of birds, flowers, lizards, but do not wait for a bus (it will be busy). Walk the Parus Trail all the way to stop 3 Canyon Junction. Lots of birds, flowers, cactus on this trail. At Canyon Junction walk down to the river, my family spent 2 hours here at the river. Not well used, with lots of butterflies, flowers, and you can cool off in water. Take the bus to the Narrows and Weeping rock you will see cooler, water type plants like ferns, columbines, shooting stars. At narrows you may see turkeys and deer. Near the visitor center, the watchman trail is also very good for birds and flowers. If you can, drive out or in the East entrance and make stops along the way. Beautiful scenery and a large variety of arid type plants like cactus, paintbrushes.

The Toadstools Hoodoos is worth a stop. You may see chollas, trumpet plants, sagebrush sparrows, snakes.

Good Luck, Rolf

Publicado por rlawrenz hace casi 6 años

If you like birds, stop at Tonaquint Park in St. George, Utah. Good opportunity to see Abert's Towhee, Gambel Quail, and other Mojave residents.

Publicado por jay hace casi 6 años

Thanks for the tips, everyone! This last week has been crazy hectic, but now our trip has begun! I’m not sure how many observations I’ll be able to post along the way, but I’ll try.

@lonnyholmes We expect to be at Valley of Fire this evening and tomorrow morning. Send me a direct message on iNat if you want to meet up!

Publicado por carrieseltzer hace casi 6 años

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