May 6, 2023
8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
On our final night in the Mojave Desert, of course we took one last night drive. Tonight, since several of the folks on the trip opted to not come along, we were able to get into just one van, and headed off down Kelbaker Road.
At first, I worried that we weren’t going to see anything, as had happened the previous night. Someone in the van spotted what they think was a Black-tailed Jackrabbit (although I didn’t see it, so it’s not included in the Species List), and then a glimpse of a Kangaroo Rat. I saw a whole lot of suspicious rocks and branches, but other than that, for the first 15 minutes or so, we didn’t see much of anything. Then, one of the students in the front of the van called out that something was in the road, so we pulled onto the shoulder . . . sure enough, there was something on the road. Something really exciting: a Mojave Desert Sidewinder! This was one of my most hoped-for species of the trip, and I was thrilled to see this gorgeous snake.
While we were viewing the snake, headlights coming from the direction of Baker switched to red and blue flashing lights, and a police car pulled up behind the van. It didn’t take me long to assure the officer that we weren’t causing any trouble . . . we were on a school field trip, and staying at Zzyzx. After chatting with him for a few more minutes, we went our separate ways. (I asked him what he knew about Yucca Man – a local cryptid – but he didn’t have any 411 for me. Disappointing). 😉
Once we were back on the road, some folks expressed that they wanted to continue the night drive, but I was just the tiniest bit shaken up by the encounter with the officer, so we decided to turn around and head back to Zzyzx. We did get a pretty good look at a Kangaroo Rat (either Desert or Merriam’s, I’m not sure which), as it ran along the road for a bit before ducking under some Creosote. (I don’t think you can actually see the animal in the photo below, but it was there, I promise).
On the way back, we did stop outside Alien Fresh Jerky for some photographs. (The lights are so pretty, and I needed to take a selfie with my friend in the car). We did pick up one new species there: a Great Plastic Owl, on the top of the building. 😉
I did suggest that we do a bit of night driving on Zzyzx Road, especially since I wanted to stop at the same place we’d stopped on our first night in town, to snap a couple of pictures of some spooky signs that I’d noticed. The rising Moon was also pretty spectacular.
I had a couple of nice sightings here, including Vachon’s Rock Scorpion that glowed beautifully under the black light, and a great view of a Pocket Mouse of some sort (maybe Desert? I have pretty good photographs, but I’m not sure they show enough distinguishing marks). We also found some mammalian bones, that included several vertebrae (very on brand for this trip). iNaturalist suggested that they were Kit Fox, but they seem too big for that, so I’m thinking that they may have belonged to a Coyote.
I did have a quite heartwarming moment as we drove back towards the entrance gate. Ahead in the dark, we saw little pools of light . . . flashlights, of folks who appeared to be searching for something along the road. At first I wondered who in the world would be out her right now, but a we drew closer, I realized they were MY STUDENTS! They’d decided to walk out along the road to make some wildlife observations, even though they hadn’t come on the night drive. This made me sooooo happy. <3
Species List
Mojave Desert Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes cerastes), Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys sp.), Vachon’s Rock Scorpion (Smeringurus vachoni), probable Desert Pocket Mouse (Chaetodipus penicillatus), Mammalian bones, possibly Coyote (Canis latrans), Great Plastic Owl (Bubo polyethylenus), Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata), Burrobush (Ambrosia dumosa), Big Galleta (Hilaria rigida)
Let me know what you think!