The third installment of my Colorado River trip through Grand Canyon, following time-lapse movies and boats, is a collection of the extraordinary wildlife, of which there was an abundance. Again, these were all shot with a Lumix Gx-8, 14-150mm.
I’ll begin with possibly my favorite bird on river trips…the crafty Raven. It is said that river trips are assigned a pair as you leave Lee’s Ferry and that they escort you down river, all 226 miles, to Diamon Creek take-out. I believe this could be true.
Every beach we stopped at for either lunch, camp or just a bathroom break seemed to have a welcoming committee of two Ravens.
They wandered camp and reminded folks to keep their belongings under lock and key, or at least secured in their dry bags.
Ravens are ballsy. This one snuck onto the boat with Amity, our river guide, standing right there, and hopped up and stole her granola bar! She was two feet, if that, away!
Here’s a pair checking out the beach to make sure everything is in order. They are smart, observant and brave.
At times I think they are more observant of their world than we humans are.
It didn’t take long before we saw our first group of bighorn sheep. I believe we saw some every day. The goal became to find ones with big horns.
This guy had a good set. We found one larger but the image was too blurry.
Here’s another pair I shot as we floated past.
At our last camp we watched Bighorn TV. It was great. We all lined up our chairs on a sandbar six inches under water and watched three sheep across the river negotiate the cliffs.
The deer weren’t as common. In fact, this may have been the only group we saw.
Lizards, however, were quite plentiful.
We found this guy at the Little Colorado. He was a juvenile and froze when we walked by. His mama came screaming out from the nearby cliff toward us to protect him. She stood her ground with us as baby wandered off to a safer location.
Look at the length of that tail!
I was out shooting rocks one morning, thinking I was alone. I went to steady myself on this rock and was surprised to find my little friend here. He never moved but had an eye on me the whole time.
This guy was a trained model. I found him while out shooting rocks and water in the morning light. He hung out, followed me and posed. His colors were beautiful.
Fire ants were pretty common in camp as well. The good news is they went to bed at sundown. A simple trap was also made. A small bowl was buried in the sand just at the level of the sand with a piece of food in it. The ants would drop down for the food and not be able to get out. Toward sundown, our guides would release the bowl full of ants back to the hill for bedtime.
No one on our trip fished. But I’m sure they would have had success had they attempted. This trout was patrolling the waters off of one of our lunch stops.
See the dark blob near the opposite canyon wall connecting the light and dark water? That’s a school of fish! Not sure what kind but at first glance it looked like some sort of plant life. This is at the mouth of Havasu Creek.
Snowy egrets…who knew? We also saw Great Blue Heron on several occasions.
A week after we got off the river a video appeared on Facebook showing a bear down at the river near Badger Rapid. A BEAR! We also saw a snake in the kitchen one night but he moved to fast for me to shoot it. I also had a scorpion attached to my lifejacket one morning but he skedattled before I could capture him as well.
The animals were a fun daily surprise, especially in a landscape as harsh as this and filled with still rocks.
Stay tuned, next week I will explore with you Elves Chasm, a lovely little side canyon waterfall.
Happy Shooting!
This is Sabu. She is a 125 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback that came with the house our friends are renting for the year in Gamboa. She is a love of a dog and a good walking partner. Her fur is turning white due to some sort of “condition”. She’s eight.
The interior of the Azuero Peninsula is agricultural. We passed many small farms, herds of cattle being moved down the road and even saw an ox drawn cart.
These chickens and rooster were wandering the grounds of a thatch roofed coffee joint near the beach. He was a big, handsome fellow and the black hen looked cool against that black and white pillow on the bench. At one point she jumped up there.
The haze at the beach was pretty constant. We attributed it to high humidity. It made for some pretty cool shots as the sun set lower in the sky in the afternoon. One afternoon we were slack-lining under some palm trees (I know…right?) when we hear a commotion on the beach a short distance away. We caught a glimpse of a mad on a horse HAULING it down the beach. Another horseman soon followed but not nearly as fast. The shot down the beach with the haze and afternoon light turned out pretty cool I think!
Beach walks were a daily occurrence. But, notice the black sand? It was HOT! We burned our feet unless we were walking in wet sand. As we walked down the beach we came across a whole section of sand that was FULL of little hermit crabs. Everywhere we looked there they were. And it was really funny because they would be moving on the beach until we approached. Then they would freeze and hunker down under their shells.
I looked down and low and behold there was a ladybug on a rock. Kind of a random sighting.
Ahhhh, my favorite birds, the pelican. I LOVE how close their wings get to the surface of the water.
I have no idea who these guys are but I thought they were cool. I think the local seagulls are standing with them but I love their bright orange beaks and black caps.
This thing was hanging out on an outside lamp one evening. It looks just like a leaf!