The many scent post visitors

Winter swept back into our world yesterday. K and I rode in shallow snow this morning.

My ancient computer is so slow that I won't try to upload any more photos from our ride. It was beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing. Robins sang from the treetops despite the 12 degree air. It felt like an odd amalgam of winter and spring.

I'm still excited about yesterday's mountain lion photos. I wanted to give you some perspective on how big and muscular yesterday's mountain lion visitor was. Here he was:

In December, another mountain lion visited this site during daylight. That lion seemed less muscle-bound, and more lithe and graceful.

Bobcats are the most frequent visitors to this scent post. Here are a couple of photos for comparison to yesterday's lion.

Bobcats look mighty small compared to the mountain lions. However, they're feisty. I predict that a bobcat will visit this scent post sometime in the near future and mark over top of the mountain lion's scrape and scent mark.

Finally, here's a cow elk who recently investigated the scent post. She's much taller than the mountain lion. It's hard to believe that lions kill and eat elk but they do so regularly.

A mountain lion's calling card

We've had some amazingly gorgeous spring signs here in the past few days. Our first Pasqueflowers, wild crocuses, have sprouted in the meadows.

The Duo and I have been making the most of the long days, enjoying the sunshine.

We saw a divine sunset last night with golden clouds radiating up from the Continental Divide with deep blue sky in the background. The clouds were a forerunner of the snowstorm that arrived today.

As we walked home in the fading light yesterday evening, I felt uncharacteristically skittish, wondering what animals might be watching us. Both dogs were on lead, and I had my pepper spray so I assured myself that I was being ridiculous. We arrived home without incident, and I laughed at myself for my silly sixth sense.

About an hour after our hike, one of my trail cameras captured a mountain lion in our territory. This morning, when I arrived at the camera and looked toward the scent post that an elk sniffed just a few days ago, I immediately knew that a mountain lion had been there and left his calling card. I saw the huge furrows, about 18" long, in the dirt, to the left of a bobcat's scat in the photo.

Here's the series of photos that I found on the camera's memory card.

As he passed the tree with the scent markings of many animals below it, his head went down as he sniffed.

He decided to leave his own territorial message and prepared to scrape the dirt with his hind paws.

He kicked back with his left hind paw.

Then, he scraped the dirt with his right hind paw.

With the scraped area ready, he lifted his tail to pee.

But, in the midst of it, he was distracted by something behind him in the forest and stared in that direction.

He decided that it was no threat and finished his business.

Tail held high, he walked away from the scent post.

The tail end of his visit...

He's the first mountain lion who I've captured photos of recently who doesn't have a big GPS collar around his neck. I wonder if he's a young male passing through in search of his own territory. In any case, I'm thrilled that I captured photos of this majestic animal.

I love my wildlife cameras!

Our time among the canyons

Two days ago, I ended my post by mentioning why we call our Sportsmobile "The Labmobile". Here is the other reason. When we first got the van, we had three Labs in our life, including S, the yellow lab.

This photo still encapsulates what I visualize when I think of our Labmobile. I took the above photo of the trio in March of 2009 on our way to Moab, and it turned out to be S's last road trip with us. On the very day that we returned home, he showed his first signs of anal gland carcinoma. He passed to the Rainbow Bridge a couple of months later.

Now, I'll continue the story of our recent trip to the desert. After our excursions to the "Top of the World" and the valley below, we ended up staying in one spot for several nights far enough outside of Moab that it was peaceful and quiet. My back was starting to flare up (the problem that's continuing now) so staying in one place seemed smart. And, it was a gorgeous spot.

The weather was wild, ranging from the 20's overnight to sunny 60's during the day to 70 mph gusts of wind to rain!

On morning, we awakened to a storm but decided to head out for a combined bike ride and run as a foursome. The red rock looked unrecognizable as the rain glistened on its slick surface.

As we climbed upward for the first 15 minutes, a chilling rain pelted us as the wind drove raindrops that felt like stinging daggers into our faces. I halted to don a rain jacket. As expected, that caused the rain squall to stop.

Just a short time later, K panted in the sunlight as she stood in red sand with perfectly blue sky behind her.

Later, as we descended toward camp, K bowed in front of a rock face that looked remarkably like a courthouse facade.

By the end of our pack run/ride, the world looked almost normal again. The rain had already evaporated from the rock.

I spent time exploring the area alone on my mountain bike. It was a world of rock cliffs and a huge sand pasture in the middle. As I rode in intense wind, I realized that the deep sand in the pasture had been scoured off the cliffs and buttes by the wind and deposited downwind of them.

Some of the buttes that were gradually being whittled away by the wind were grandiose in their scale. Do you see my bike propped at the base of this ship-like butte? It looks like a tiny toy bike.

I loved playing on the "aprons" of the buttes, expansive stretches of slickrock that were fun for bike riding!

I also enjoyed the views of the snowy mountains not far away.

Each afternoon, we'd take a hike before dinner, enjoying the sun set. The sun would select certain rock faces to highlight each evening. And, with no one else around, the dogs could scamper as much as they wanted!

We'd usually finish our hike just as the sun set, setting the red rock ablaze.

K patiently let me photograph her in the setting sunlight.

One sunset was sublime. The soft orange light with storm clouds in the background made our canyon feel magical.

It was a wonderful get-away and a great break from winter. Usually, we still have numerous big snowstorms ahead of us at this point in the year.

Desert and elk photos

I had planned to continue the story of our trip today. However, to be honest, my back hurts too much for me to work at my computer for long. So, I'll just share a few photos today and hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow.

K gazed over a canyon at sunset.

My bike was ready to go for an adventure on the desert slickrock with snowy mountains on the horizon.

The Duo donned my favorite riding jerseys. R's featured a Lucky Black Lab and K's featured a Chocolate Lab!

While we were away, my wildlife cameras had lots of visitors. This cow elk was pretty funny on her first visit to a camera that I have set up in a pine forest on a well-worn animal trail.

 She showed off her four shapely legs for the cam.

 Then, she let us focus on her hind legs.

I don't know if this was the same cow elk the next morning, carefully sniffing a bobcat and mountain lion scent post replete with cat scat and urine.

The elk left in a hurry. I don't blame her.

Finally, a bobcat walked along the edge of a meadow after a light snow.

It's fun having remote cameras taking wildlife photos in my home forest while I'm on vacation! I have more trail camera photos to share but I'll save them for a later post.