Thanks to a recommendation by a chance encounter with a friend on the Palm Oasis Trail, we discovered another beautiful hike near Ghost Mountain. The names of these places are enough to entice you to visit them...Lizard Canyon, Chuckwalla Wash, Bighorn Canyon...
The 5 mile narrow, sandy road begins by following an open field in the shadow of Ghost Mountain.
Perfect habitat for birds of prey. Once again, we saw an American Kestrel. This time it was hovering over the field searching for prey. When it spotted something of interest, it dived to the ground. It was so fascinating to us. We pulled our car over on the side of the road to watch it perform over and over again. Birds on the move are quite difficult to photograph. I barely got the Kestrel as it flew from its perch.
The Loggerhead Shrike has a nickname of the "Butcher bird" because it impales its prey before eating it. Looks are deceiving....
This area was inhabited by the Kumeyaay Native Americans. Their presence comes to life when you see evidence of their previous existence here in this "lush" desert hideaway.
The trail leads to a boulder covered in pictographs.
We also discovered these morteros where the women ground nuts and seeds with a small rounded rock.
Unlike the extremely desolate trail leading to Elephant Knees, this place was full of vegetation. The most abundant were the Cholla cactus, Creosote bush and the tall Agave plants.
Always on the look out for wildlife, I saw these two ravens perched inconspicuously on a high, rocky ledge at the end of the trail. They patiently sat watching us while I took photos of them.
A few more steps and the path abruptly ends at a precipitous drop overlooking Smuggler's Canyon. It's hard to capture the beauty in a photo! Best to see for yourself!
The ravens that I photographed flew ahead of us as we began our return trip. Eventually, we spotted them once again on another rocky ledge overlooking the trail head where we began. It seems they were curious about us as well. Farewell for now.
