Post 1/3
I’m back!!
So, for the 1st of 2 posts, I’mma sum up the awesomenity of those 23 days.
FUCKIN TIME OF MY LIFE.
K that’s it.
… kidding.
Wow, just, wow. Words don’t even begin to describe how absolutely breathtaking EVERYthing was. We literally travelled across the entire South U.S., from Texas to New Mexico to Arizona to… yeah everywhere. Lol
Seriously, I don’t even know what to say, like, there’s too much to say. Highlights? EVERY SINGLE MOMENT. Pretty much.
First. Cactus loving. They needed it, so I gave it. Yup. I was ‘the cactus hugger’ (as opposed to tree hugger?). Also, took a lot of pics of cacti that looked like they had faces. XD They amused me greatly. Anyway.
Welder Wildlife Refuge. Our 1st stop. The first morning we woke up to a bobcat dragging its freshly killed deer about 30m from our bunkhouses. Quite epic. During the few days there we saw so many things, from Armadillos to a Coral Snake to … etc. Also it rained. A lot. Bawwh.
Big Bend. Holy Fuck. The views. The viewwwws!! *dies* What a gorgeous place. And of course feckin awesome wildlife too. Got to poke at the most venomous snake in North America (Mojave Rattlesnake), nyahaha~! Oh, and amusing story: we were doing some night adventuring, and it was dead quiet until the very loud cry of a donkey pierced the silence… it totally sounded like a Tusken Raider so I lol’d. A LOT. … No I don’t know why a donkey was in the middle of the desert. :/ We didn’t see it though… maybe it WAS a Tusken Raider! 0:
Also, at one point we were climbing back down from an epic hike, and it actually started to hail! Crrrazyyyy. Not to mention it was 40̊ C the day before. Extreme.
Speaking of extreme weather, we went to ‘Canada’ i.e. Cave Creek Canyon after that, which was feckin cooooold ‘cause of its elevation ‘n whatnot. I actually had to wear my winter jacket and couldn’t sleep at night since it was so freezing. @.@
Omg and then Chiricahua mountains! Balancing rocks, wee~ Literally it looks like a valley of stacks of rocks… which is pretty much what it is.
Um and then Catalina which is where we saw our first Saguaro Cacti (for those of you who don’t know those’re the typical columnar/branched cacti depicted in cartoons). THEY’RE HUGE. @____@ like 4 times my height, some of them.
Then we went to a museum, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum (what a mouthful…), and we got to go behind the scenes to their reptile facilities, where they have breeding programs and quarantine and reserve animals and… yes cool. XD We got to see these giant killer centipedes that can get up to 2 feet long and eat small mice! And and… stuff. Learned that there are 2 things you really need to be cautious of in the Sonoran Desert:
- Bark Scorpions: fatal to children, oldies, and basically people with compromised immune systems
- Arizona Brown: spider whose bite you can hardly feel but a couple of days later your skin starts rotting. Ya basically hafta chop of the infected part to prevent it from spreading everywhere. REALLY cool, but also HOLY WTF. … We had a Brown Recluse in our campsite bathrooms actually (which is a pretty similar species)
Then Organ Pipe National Monument. Umm I can’t remember any particular highlights here… OH WAIT. We saw a Golden Eagle. :D
Joshua Tree National Park. Epic. Our campsite was epic. Basically we camped right next to a MOUNTAIN of rocks so we pretty much had a backyard playground. Except that there were snakes. Lots of ‘em. Venomous ones. But no one died so it was okay. Also the outhouses had swarms of bees hanging around them during the day, so we kinda had to either pee behind rocks/in the bush or hold it ‘til nightfall. @.@ OR use the outhouses of the next campsite which was like half a km away. *cough* … I actually just braved the bees because by ‘swarm’ I mean about 10 of them… >__>
Kayyyy so then we went to Afton Canyon where we saw a SIDEWINDER. Which is like, that snake there that moves sideways (often along sand dunes)… lol uh yes. And the most handsome Gopher Snake (‘tis a constrictor that kills gophers by squishing them up against the walls of their burrows) ever <3
Oh and we also went Desert Tortoise tracking! We grouped off with some researchers that showed us how to track them down via GPS and radio frequencing (well, ‘cause they had radio transmitters implanted on them…). Really, really cool :D
And for the grand finale we went to the Grand Canyon!! Only spent a night there but we got to see the sunset AND sunrise (had to get up at 4:30 after hardcore partying the night before but whatevs). Absolutely indescribable, the experience was. O__O Like, you have no idea, unless you go see it for yourself. No words nor pics can do it justice. Just. Wow. WOW.
We also saw California Condors, which have like a 9ft wingspan. GARGANTUAN.
Um then that was it. We had to come back home, which was sad L
So that’s the brief of the brief of it. Very brief. Indeed.
OMFG I WANNA DO IT AGAIN.
AND AGAIN. AGAIN. AND AGAIN. *explodes*