Birch Creek

Yesterday was "road trip day." The phenomenon of "High Desert Spring" was upon us yesterday so I took a new friend to see some of the sights of this area. She had seen Jordan Craters, which is on the same road, but had never gone down into Birch Creek itself.

https://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/files/brochures/BirchCreekHistoricRanch.pdf

On the top of the plateau it is fairly unremarkable if you discount the 25 miles of unbroken Lava and grassland. However when you drop over the edge of the hill it changes dramatically. As you get deeper into the canyon the bones of the earth come into view. While some of them hint at the stark beauty of Leslie Gulch, it is not nearly as breath taking.

https://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/files/brochures/Leslie%20Gulch.pdf

Still it surprised my friend, as she had no idea that anything like it even existed.

We didn't see all that much of the wildlife of the area, other than a surprising herd of Deer that wanted to be somewhere else.

I was surprised to see them bunched up like that on top of the hill. We stopped to ID them and they began to file quickly down the hill in a single line. I followed slowly behind them until they came to the road. I should mention that the mere presence of Deer in that location was in itself a real surprise. I expected Antelope, which would have been normal. Deer generally do not inhabit the open grasslands of the Owyhee region.

They were lead by an older Doe, and followed in a fashion that surprised me. Deer, in my experience, do not follow so closely one another. It was as though she was leading them away from danger, but I could see no reason for their behavior, no danger following them. It was obvious that we were not considered anything other than a distraction.  They were intent on changing their zipcode. You can the the beginnings of a set of antlers growing on one of the Deer towards the back.

There were quite a large and surprising number of people down there, some sight seeing on quads, the rest were either the intrepid rafters that infest this area in the winter/spring, or the support crews there to pick them up. Knowing the vagaries of the weather here in April, I have nothing but admiration for these people that just spent almost a week floating down the Owyhee. Thank you, I think I will just throw another log on the fire, get another cup of coffee and write about it.

Once we got to the bottom, I let the dogs out of the car and let them run off some of their energy. Josie was all over, and of course in the river and the lovely black sticky nasty looking mud at the edges. When we got home I began to try to remove some of the stickers that they picked up while there. It required scissors and quite a lot of effort as well as pain to free them of their Burdock burrs from their  fur.

 Here are some of the photos that I took:

 I believe this to be a Mourning Cloak butterfly. It is as close as I can come to what I found in a book of Butter flies.