When visiting or observing dinosaur foot tracks, do not dump a bunch of water into a dinosaur print like this lady who did not know what she was talking about. She impressed a family with a few young kids but everything she was telling them was not true. It is permitted to spray some water on the track to make is easier to identify. I have never found this to be the case but regardless, the lady with the camera poured a 12 ounce bottle of water into the print making it unidentifiable. She claimed to be a scout for National Geographic, whatever that means. You can see the father of the children trying to scoop the water out so the children can see the print.
A little bit of knowledge can make people dangerous.

During a May 2104 trip, we set camp early evening at Ken’s Lake. One in our group happen to set his tent on top of a nest of Field Mice. We didn’t learn this until after 3 days when we broke down the tents and packed up. There seem to be a mother and several babies scurrying around our feet. They definitely were not shy or frightened by our presence.  So if you have a fear of mice, look closely before you set camp. By the way, they did not feel any presence under the tent while sleeping.

During my last trip in May 2014, our group was hiking at Fisher Towers. The weather had been on and off thunderstorms for several days. Our hike this day started out with some clouds and sun. While we were in the sun, I can see off in the distance Nimbus clouds forming with some virga. After about 1 mile of hiking I heard some thunder and stopped the group. As I contemplated the decision to turn back, the wind abruptly kicked up. Luckily the desert here is wide open and I can see the Nimbus clouds get darker and appear to move in our direction. I turn our group back quickly toward the trailhead. I passed several groups of hikers and warned of the impending weather. I felt it would be severe due to the thunder but more importantly the strength and sudden approach of the wind. They disregarded me and continued on.

We reached the trailhead as a light drizzle began. Within 10 minutes we were in the cars out to the main road driving when it hit. The heavy rain and thunder was mixed with nickel sized hail. It was so bad I pulled over thinking the windshield was going to be smashed. Within 20 minutes it passed to just be rain. That must have been a long 20 minutes for those hikers that continued on as there is no protection and if lightening were to strike Fisher Tower it likely would have splashed over onto them.

My group learned a valuable lesson about weather and the desert.  The photos above are shown in order as I returned the group to the cars and subsequent hail storm.

This is a small ruin of a copper mill. All that remains in a stone wall and a black pile of fine rocks left over from the smelting process of the  copper ore. There is also a pile of rusted cans and hardware from the era.  This site is usually seen in conjunction with the Dinosaur Trail as they are across the dry wash from each other.  Just follow the directions to Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail.