Sagebrush Lizard, Death Valley; America's Next Top Lizard's Closeup

This is the same lizard as the previous post.  Bob had his camera set to do closeup shots of the wildflowers in bloom, so he tried to get a closeup of this lizard, since he seemed to be very cooperative about letting us take photos of him.  Bob was able to get within an inch of his face to get this shot.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

"America's Next Top Lizard", a sagebrush lizard at Dante's View, Death Valley National Park

While in Death Valley during this year's "superbloom", we went to Dante's View to look down on Death Valley from a high vantage point and managed to find a photogenic lizard. This little guy stayed on the top of this rock for over half an hour. We got closer and closer to it to get pictures and it didn't seem to mind at all. Eventually, we even put on close up lenses and got pictures of its face. The lenses came to within an inch of its face, but it still didn't move. Rick started calling it "America's Next Top Lizard", because it turned out to be such a good model for us. We pointed it out to people passing by and they were able to get their smartphones close to it for close up images, too. It finally left after we saw an insect land on the rock below it and the lizard dropped down quickly to snatch the bug in its mouth, then it scampered off to the ground and continued on its way. We wished we had a camcorder running to catch that action, but we missed it. This was the same cluster of rocks where we saw the chuckwalla shown in our earlier post.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Trona Pinnacles in the Mojave Desert of California. Where the remake of "Planet of the Apes" was partially filmed.

The Trona Pinnacles are in the Mojave Desert of California. They were formed while underwater in the ancient Searles Lake, which is now completely dry. Where the towers form represents freshwater springs that spewed calcium-enriched waters into the carbonate-laden mineral waters of the ancient lake. Calcium and carbonate combine to form calcium carbonate, the same material that makes up sea shells and cave formations. Mono Lake is famous for its tufa towers that are still forming. The ones at Trona that formed under Searles Lake can't grow anymore.

A few years ago, the Planet of the Apes movie was remade and some of the scenes in that movie were filmed among the Trona Pinnacles. We've also seen some commercials  with these pinnacles in them, as well.

We often stop by the Trona Pinnacles on our way to Death Valley National Park. The small town of Trona is south south-west of Death Valley and along the route from Ridgecrest, Highway 178. The dirt road out to the Pinnacles comes off of Highway 178 and crosses railroad tracks. This area is not a National Park, but is Bureau of Land Management land. They don't have the restrictions that a park would have in effect, so people can drive right up to the features and hike around them. There have been mines here so a visitor should use caution when exploring. Camping isn't allowed, though.

The last time we drove through here, the full moon was about 4 days away, so the nearly full moon was rising well before sunset. We looked at the moon and the pinnacles from several angles. Rick liked this one with the moon between a couple of the pinnacles as a dramatic shot.

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story!