Today a friend and I hiked the Wind Caves at Usery Park located south on Ellsworth Rd. We began our hike shortly after 8 with a cloud covered sky and slight chances of rain. A beautiful day for a hike and some geocaches. Shortly after the hike began, we were in for a pleasant surprise. There on the path was a desert tortoise! 
How often does one get to see one in the wild? This was a rare opportunity so we stopped to take pictures and watch it on its way. After sitting for a while it got comfortable with us around and so it got up and moved along. It moved quite a bit faster than what I had thought they could move. Here is a short video clip of the tortoise walking down the trail. We named him Terry The Tortoise.
How often does one get to see one in the wild? This was a rare opportunity so we stopped to take pictures and watch it on its way. After sitting for a while it got comfortable with us around and so it got up and moved along. It moved quite a bit faster than what I had thought they could move. Here is a short video clip of the tortoise walking down the trail. We named him Terry The Tortoise. 
We left it on its way and continued on ours. Almost to the wind caves we found one small geocache in a rock crevice. We reached the wind caves and continued up to the peak. After some rock climbing and rocks covered in gnats, we were near the top looking for another geocache.We found it and then headed back down a different way. Doing a little rock climbing down and some more hiking we reached the wind caves again only to leave once more on the trek back to the car. On the way down I found another large geocache and was looking for a small one that I couldn't find. I did see a few holes in the rocks that could have been desert tortoise dens. Walking back to the trail led me to another discovery, however. A snake slithering through the bushes. Immediately I determined it was not a rattlesnake so I followed it around from bush to rock to bush. As I was getting my camera out, ready to take a picture, it went under some rocks and then I could not find it again. I saw the whole body at one point and my thought was that it was a whipsnake. After getting home and looking it up, it was in fact a Sonoran whipsnake (check out Sonoran whipsnake or another picture for more details). I also noticed on the way back that almost every Saguaro cactus with lots of fruit on top had a white-winged dove perched on top eating the fruit. As we walked by a bird would fly off almost every one. Back at the parking lot, finding one more geocache would end our day's adventures. Just in time too as the sun finally poked through the clouds and we started getting toasty. 
Ryan, back in the mid/late '70's, I had a summer job at that park building trails and etc. About the same time, I took a hike up the mountain behind the park and found a desert tortoise also. I carried him all the way back home (and he peed on me too!) lol. I named him Rusty and painted his name on the underside of his shell. I let him go in the desert by the house. 6-12 months later, I saw a tortoise again, and sure enough, it said Rusty underneath..:)
ReplyDeleteWell that's good to know he was still surviving out there! That was the first tortoise I had seen in the wild (at least that I can remember) besides just the shell of a young one that had died. My brother found a young one by Sugerloaf mountain in a wash as well.
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