"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!

Hinkey Summit Arch, Humboldt/Toiyabe National Forest, north of Winnemucca, Nevada

 This is a natural arch formed in granite.  It is located in the Santa Rose Range of the Humboldt/Toiyabe National Forest north of Winnemucca, Nevada.  According to the late Robert Vreeland, a geologist who cataloged many of the natural rock spans of the United States, this is a young, cave-type arch.  It has a span of 20 feet, a height of 15 feet, a thickness of 40 feet, and a width of 15 feet.  The top of the arch is over 8000 feet in elevation.

Natural rock spans are a particular interest of ours and we have traveled to many parks and wildlands looking for them.  Although this arch doesn't have an official name, we would like to call it the Hinkey Summit Arch, after the nearest named feature.

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