Golden Eagle Sightings !   Hiker: Marc Yaxley On a short 1 hour hike today, I caught a quick video of a mom Eagle launching right over me. I had stumbled near and below a rock outcrop where she had made her seasonal nest and loaded it with eggs. Being a bed and breakfast at first I thought "how many people can I feed with one of those eggs?", then sanity returned and the lowly chicken eggs will have to suffice. Here is a snap of that video of her launching from the nest that I visit next: Looping over my head as I "hung out in the Eagles Nest" (I limited my visit to 2 to 3 minutes only): More fairly close (20') shots of her swooping around me as if to say, "...you better not touch those babies...": The nest niche they live in, two full size adults were in service as I came up, they both flew off as the above photos show, leaving their Eaglet for me to spy on: Mom flying over while I looked around, she did...

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is approximately 174,000 acres, so there are many places which the public may visit, which are not well publicized. Sand Canyon Trail, beginning just 2 miles west of Kelly Place, is highly visited and on some days the small undeveloped parking area cannot hold the number of vehicles of people who wish to go hiking, biking and horseback riding. Here are just a couple places along Road G in McElmo Canyon where you can go to find remnants of the Ancestral Puebloans without those parking problems. Cannonball Mesa: Travel west on Road G along the rocky cliffs and old ranch holdings. About 9.9 miles west of the Kelly Place road sign, you will see a gated turn-off on the right. You may pass through the gate and continue on after closing the gate. Continue on this dirt road (high clearance vehicle recommended), for another 2 miles and you will come to the Cannonball Mesa pueblo complex. You can see more details and pictures on this website: ...