A Break from Canyons

Hah, just found this unpublished post languishing in the drafts!  This happened in early March when we were camping at Death Valley.   

And a new State!  We noticed on our park map that just outside the Park in Nevada was Ash Valley National Wildlife Refuge with a special extension of Death Valley NP called the Devil's Hole. 

We were feeling a little wildlife deprived so made a day excursion out of state. 

Ash Valley NWR was established to protect a number of desert springs  and associated alkaline marshes that were threatened by a proposed retirement community and existing agriculture. 

The springs host populations of 3 endangered pupfish:  the Ash Valley pupfish, the Warm Springs pupfish and the especially endangered Devil's Hole pupfish.

We were enchanted by the beauty of these springs.

Of course, where there's water and vegetation there are birds.  It's a little early for spring migration, but still we saw a lot more birds here in a few hours than in several days in Death Valley.

Bird of the day is the loggerhead shrike Leo took this nice photo of.

And we also have this handsome Lizard of the day:

Species Unknown

Even the reservoir was attractive with its aquamarine water.

We saw quite a few overwintering duck species as well as an egret, a Cormorant and lots of quail.

At Point of the Rock springs we finally saw what the fuss was about pupfish.

Bright blue breeding males. (Best of a lot of blurry photos we took)

Had to check out the Devil's Hole.  We like to call it the pupfish penetentiary.

It's completely caged in to protect the fish and the spring.  The fish live in this cavern and irrigation in the area is restricted to keep the water level up so they can breed.

View of the Devil's Hole

There's even a historical cabin, once home to colourful pioneer, built into the tufa mound of a spring so he could have running water in his house.  Apparently he was on good terms with the local Shoshone tribe and was married to 5(!) Shoshone women (serially, I think).

Longstreet cabin and tufa mound

Later we had lunch in the nearby Longstreet Casino, named after said pioneer.  Food was pretty good but the place smelled of stale smoke just like the good old days. Also home to two new species, mallard ducks and Canada geese.

On the way home we stopped off at Dante's View and made a short hike along the ridge.

Dante's View of Death Valley