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...

En joying a breath of fresh air as we "stay at home"! I took these today on a lazy hike into our back country, this is about the natural aged beauty sur rounding us .  Some of the wood shots were once living and now dead wood that still portray certain elements of beauty to some eyes, like mine, I am forever fascinated by wood,  it's grains and fibers showing how it lived once and was strong.  Now home to various bugs and seeds . You will see cliff faces and mountains as well as wonderful still living ancient juniper and pinion bushes . I added a few yard shots show our spring 'gras s circles' in our yard, hmm, mole tunnels or alien landing sites or maybe deer droppings? :

All of the following photos were taken within 2000' of our lodge. You can spend days roaming the canyons and shooting the very  bizarre landscapes to be found here. Cactus Canyon, later that day, more dry and curling up just fine. Cactus Canyon, many meteor strikes even in this small 12" square area. Cactus Canyon, could well be the Moons surface. Well, what's with the potato chip effect? Not without water. Cactus Canyon, solitary "leg" holding up the rest of the world. Cactus Canyon, this tree couldn't decide which way to grow, finally got over it and strengthen up! Cactus Canyon, cool mini-water slide in the rock. Cactus Canyon, a nice serene scene with water in it, rare. I also love the rock textures I find in Cactus Canyon. Can't get enough of them! Cactus Canyon, we have our own "arches" beginning to form.  Give it another 2.5M years! Cactus Canyon, this is the...