Tour of the West: Critters

Surprisingly, we didn't see a single snake on the trip, despite being in what seemed like prime snake territory for much of the trip. Lots of lizards, though. Here are the few that didn't run away too far as I stalked them:

Spiny Lizard of some sort, Hickison Petroglyph area NV

Long-nosed Leopard Lizard, Baker Archaeological site NV

Side-blotched Lizard(?), Hickison Petroglyph Area

My favorite lizard of the trip, the Desert Spiny Lizard that I stalked up the side of Dry Fork Coyote Gulch in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He finally posed in the light after I chased him sufficiently.

As far as mammals go, there were lots of these black-tailed jackrabbits that just ran way too fast to get a good picture.

We call this general category of campground menace "Squirrel-rats". This one appeared to be eating the cottonwood fluff after being shoed away from our breakfast. Our campsite at Dinosaur National Monument appeared to come with two of these little dudes, which Nim dubbed Pancake-man and Waffle-man, for no apparent reason.

Sometimes, squirrel-rat are also fast and hard to photograph

unless they are tired.

Different species of squirrel-rat, this time at Trumbull Lake in CA

In the category of animals that aren't fast is this cow. It wouldn't move out of the road, no way, now how. Just gave us the stink-eye. We finally had to just drive around it.

And cutest of all --

Feral child who hasn't showered in six days, Dinosaur National Monument