Deer, tortoises, and bees

I'm going to be away from the desert for a few days, so I had to go out for a quick hike after work today. I went out to a ridge I haven't climbed for a while. I piddled around so much on the way up that I didn't get as far as I wanted, but I saw lots of cool stuff.

I saw a helicopter fly over, as usual, but what was unusual is that I didn't take a picture of it. I think helicopters pilots must fly out there every chance they get, because it's so pretty. I wonder what it looks like from the air.

Here's the usual "find the truck" photo. Nobody ever says that they found it. Either it's too easy or they don't even try. I know that Lauren doesn't even try. When we lived in England, they newspaper had a weekly contest. There was a picture of a soccer game and you were supposed to find the ball. I never could. They would show where it was the next week and you would wonder how you could have missed it. I think the picture in the contest must have been edited to make the ball less visible, though. Anyway, lots of people tried to find the ball, and you would hear at least one person talking about it during the week. Maybe the reason people aren't interested in "find the truck" is because I don't offer thousands of dollars in prize money.

As I climbed along the ridge, I saw a few bees flying around a cliff face. I went to investigate and sure enough, there was a colony of bees there. This is the honeycomb that was visible.

There must be a lot more that is not visible, in that hole behind the honeycomb. I made a video of a small cave (with windows!) that also has the honecomb at the end. You can hear a few bees buzzing around the outside, but if you turn up the sound and listen closely, you will hear the hum of thousands of bees that are out of sight somewhere.

I was headed back to the truck, clomping along noisily, when I thought I heard another noisy hiker to my right. It was a deer, though. I started to say that it ran a short ways, but it didn't run. It bounced along, springing through the air with all four feet hitting the ground at the same time and then all for feet in the air at the same time. I wish I could move through those areas as easily as the deer seem to. It stopped and watched me for a little while, then bounced away. I thought I was making a video as it left, but it wasn't running. Drat!

Right after the deer left, I spotted this.

I could think of only one animal that would make a trail like that, and it isn't one that bounces along on all fours. It must have been a desert tortoise. Lindsey and I saw one in this area a year or two ago. I followed the trail around for a while, hoping to find the tortoise at the end. Never did, though. The sun was setting fast and I couldn't follow all the trails.

The next picture is either sad or funny. Some moron acted like he was locking the gate, but all he did was lock a chain to itself. I wonder if his house gets burglarized a lot.

Click below to see all of the pictures.