Zebra-tailed lizards are similar to cows

I was hesitant to go to Bulldog Canyon today. I thought it might still be full of the surly church crowd. I didn't think about it being Sunday until later, though. First I drove over to Saguaro Lake Ranch. It looked like I could park there, walk across Stewart Mountain Dam, and easily get to the top of the mountains that are just across the river from Bush Highway. No dice. Of course, I couldn't park at the ranch. That's for customers and that is understandable. There isn't enough room to have hikers parking there, too. And there ain't no way anybody is going to set foot on that dam. Since 9/11, anybody with a back pack that's near a dam is a terrorist hell-bent on the destruction of the American way of life. Anyway, I had a nice conversation with the pleasant woman at the ranch. Maybe I can talk Suzanne into spending a weekend there in cooler weather (they close when it's hot, anyway). They do provide canoes so guests can get to the other side of the river, but they don't let people hike alone. Good grief, I don't know if it's BO or my personality, but I can't get anybody to hike with me.

I thought about the parking areas at the Bulldog Canyon entrances being empty and decided to go there. I saw people on 3 ATV's as I was driving in, and that's the only other people I saw the whole time I was there. Nice. (Hmm, maybe it's my personality.) I headed for Spooky Hill.

I was planning to walk around Spooky Hill and Horseshoe Mountain. As I walked, though, I felt lazy and decided to just climb Spooky Hill. As I approached it, though, I felt even lazier and decided to see what I could find in Spooky Canyon. Next thing I know, I'm up on the side of Horseshoe Mountain, looking down on Spooky Hill. So much for going on a lazy hike.

While I was up there, it seemed that the buzzing of bees was exceptionally loud. Then I spotted a stream of bees spewing out of the side of a cliff. It was a little scary. I made a video. It's shot into the sun, but that way the bees show up better. Trust me, it's the only way you would have seen them after the upload compression. I didn't want to get too close to that hive.

You may be wondering by now how Zebra-tailed lizards are like cows. Down on the ranch (the one in Wharton), you can walk out into the pasture and the cows will run away from you. You can't get very close to them. Richard and I used to throw aerobies out there and try to get ringers on cow horns. We never did, but we figured we would have to use the truck to get the aerobie off the cow horns, because cows don't run away from a truck. I've had trouble getting pictures of Zebra-tailed lizards because they keep running away. As I drove down the road in the truck today, they just stood on the side of the road and watched. What is it about trucks that sets animals at ease?

At the beginning of the pictures, there are a couple of blurry pictures of a red tailed hawk. It came soaring up out of the canyon near where Suzanne and I had parked to watch the lesser nighthawks.

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