Thunderstorms and pikas – exploring the Wyoming Range

After I left Canada, I headed back to the Little Rockies in Montana, where another breezy night kept me from getting any good recordings.  Then I explored the northern end of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, where the campgrounds were just opening.  I found a nice, dispersed area and pulled into a campsite some distance from a group with a couple of RVs and trucks.  Although they should have been far enough away to not pick up on the recorders, one of the RVs ran a noisy generator all night long.  But it was a very pretty area, and driving out through Shell Canyon was stunning.

I then took the long drive to SW Wyoming and headed up La Barge Canyon in the Wyoming Range.  There were lots of dispersed sites and I found a nice site of aspens across from the rich riparian area of La Barge Creek.  Although there was an amazing mix of birds in the area, the noise of the stream and wind in the aspens drowned out the recordings. 

So, I headed on up the canyon, which looked like it had just opened after the snow melted.  The road was pretty washed out making driving a little tricky, but doable.  Several dispersed sites were already occupied by groups of trailers and RVs.  But as I got near the top of the ridge, I found a lovely, forested site between a wet meadow and a confluence of streams full of beaver dams at 8500 feet.  There were still patches of snow in the deep shade and on the ridges.

That was our home for the next several days, and the dog and I had great fun exploring the area.  One morning, I even managed to see a momma moose with a brand-new calf near the wet meadow, and on the other side of camp near the beaver ponds, saw a yearling moose – probably the older calf of the same female.

The first night’s recordings weren’t great – too much stream noise, but better placement on the second night resulted in some nice recordings.  The second evening was gorgeous, full of crystal-clear stars.  I thought about doing some star photography, but I wimped out in the cold, high-altitude air.  It was less windy than previous nights, so I set out a couple of mics.  Around 4 am, I got up to pee and discovered that it had clouded up overnight and it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.  To the north, I saw some distant lightning.  My mics were some distance from camp, and I had no desire to go stumbling around in the dark, in grizzly country, to find and pull in the mics. So, I went back to bed and hoped for the best.

The thunder arrived with the first hints of light in the sky.  The storm passed quickly right over camp.  Luckily, the rain only lasted for a couple of minutes, but the mics picked up a great thunderstorm.

The storm cleared quickly after dawn, leaving behind a stiff, frigid wind.   I explored some more, dried out the furry wind covers for the mics, but held off on any recording until the next morning, when I got this lovely dawn chorus:

My plan was to head over the pass and take the route west into Idaho, but the road was blocked by a large snowbank, so I went back the way I came.  I found another side canyon in the lower part of La Barge Canyon with nice talus slides on both sides.  The rocks were full of pikas, and the nearby sagebrush was full of Brewer’s Sparrows and Green-tailed Towhees.  So, I found a place to camp and enjoyed a nice sunny afternoon away from the cold winds of the last few days.  I set several mics out overnight and managed to capture this late dawn chorus accompanied by pika calls:

By this time, I had been on the road for nearly a month and thought it was about time to head home and see how much of my garden had survived the Nevada heat.  So, I left La Barge Canyon and in northwestern Utah hit the worst windstorm I’ve ever driven through clouds of dust, tumbleweeds flying across the road, several cargo vans blown off the road.  I was exhausted by the time I arrived at a motel in Wells, Nevada. The next morning, I headed to Ruby Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, which had apparently missed all the rain I had experienced further north.  It was very dry and dusty.  I spent a quiet night south of the refuge, then headed on to central Nevada, where I thought I’d spend my last night out at a remote campground that I’ve frequented before.  The campground was deserted when we arrived, but later in the afternoon, a couple of guys with a pickup truck and toy hauler pulled in and camped at the far end of the campground. They were pretty quiet, but their big dog ran over and viciously attacked Sage (on leash, in camp). After the dog’s owner pulled his dog off Sage, he lamely apologized and went back to his site.  I was shaken up enough that I loaded Sage into the car and left, driving the rest of the way home.  When I checked her more thoroughly when we got home, I discovered a cut on her throat that ended up needing 5 stitches to close.  Not a great end to the trip.  She recovered quickly but still panics when approached by strange dogs.