Hodge-podge

I have a number of shots in the camera that were picked up here and there as we went about our business over the past week.  Some of them would have been nice to go along with the previous couple of posts but rather than go back and edit those posts I think it would be better to just put them here since it is unlikely that anyone would go back and read posts they have already looked at.

Our grocery run to St. George took us past some nice vistas and I mentioned the buffalo a couple of times.  On the 12 mile drive to the park entrance station from the campground the road slices through a meadow.  It is a big meadow, long and narrow and runs the length of a shallow valley for about 10 miles.  This is where the North Rim buffalo roam.

The herd tends to gather near the park entrance station in the early mornings and that is exactly where we found them just as the sun was getting above the tops of the trees.  They had parsed themselves into two groups about 100 yards apart but all on the same side of the highway.  This was very different when returned that night.  They had moved a couple miles and were strung out along and on the road near some blind corners.  It was slow as we picked our way through them.


One thing I found curious was that there were so many almost newborn calves.  It seemed pretty late in the season for an animal that has to endure extreme winter conditions to give birth only a few weeks before temperatures plummet and food gets scarce.

Here on the Kaibab Plateau we have a couple of rodents that are not seen anywhere else.  One is the golden mantle ground squirrel and the other is the Kaibab squirrel.  The golden mantles are pretty numerous in the campground and I have already posted a shot or two of them.  The Kaibab squirrel on the other hand has been eluding me for weeks.  They are out only in a narrow band of time in the early mornings and these guys never stop moving.  Getting close enough to get a sharp-focused shot and in a posture other than running away has been tough.

I finally caught up with one the other day that ten other photographers were not chasing after.  I put the big flash on the hot shoe in hopes of "freezing" the action.  I was still pretty far away and it was all the flash could do to reach my target but these are the best images I have captured.  Check out the bright, white tail.  The rangers told me that if I was stalking a Kaibab squirrel to just look for the "dinner napkin porpoising through the woods".

Not evident in these photos are large tufts of hair on the tops of their ears.  That is something else I have been trying to get close enough to get a clear shot of.  But after a couple weeks of frustration in stalking one I learned that the tufts are most prominent in winter.  I'm not sticking around for the twelve feet of snow they get up here to get a picture of tufts of hair on a squirrel's ears.

The longer we are around the north rim the more we get to look under the hood.  While doing a little exploring the other day near the mounted law enforcement barn I came across a building with a small sign above the door that said "Sign Shop".  But it was not the sign shop that got my attention, it was the concrete slab with a large floor drain and a coiled up water hose with spray nozzle adjacent to the sign shop that caught my eye.  It looked like a place where they wash their vehicles and equipment.  Oh boy, Big Gulp has not had a wash since the week of July 4th.  He had never gone this long without a bath, we just might be in business.

I made contact with the ranger in charge of the North Rim and asked if volunteers could wash their private vehicles, she said; "Absolutely, wash your truck every day if you want".  Cyndee was standing there and responded with; "Oh lord, don't give him any ideas".

Too late, the die had been cast.  I got my truck washing gear dug out of the basement and got it all ready so that I could go over and do a wash the next day while we were on our seven-hour break. 

Cyndee was across the street at the "community room" when she snapped a shot of the sign shop with Big Gulp in the wash bay.  The community room is where we get our mail and where UPS drops off and picks up.

There was over a thousand miles of cross-country driving grime that had to be scrubbed off.  It took a good part of the afternoon with most of that time trying to get all the bugs off the grill.

Of late the "monsoon" had abated and it had been pretty dry.  I joked with Cyndee that I was doing my best rain dance by washing the truck.  But I guess the joke was on me.  It has been raining like a son-of-a-gun almost since the moment I got Big Gulp chamoised off.  My plans to clay bar and wax are on indefinite hold.

Forecasts for the weekend are for another two to three inches of rain.  Campers are canceling reservations and people that are already here are packing up and leaving early.  We had 51 sites clear out on Friday morning.  Normally, people would be waiting at the gates to move on to a site as soon as it cleared, but not this time.  This time we have more than a handful of empty sights and the "Sights Available" sign came out at the check-in kiosk.  A rare thing.