Down to Pleasanton

Monday the 21st - the kids wanted to visit a friend in Pleasanton, so we drove south and started our walk at the Grant county line. Once again the sky looked ominous, but it turned out to be perfect for walking. If you haven't been out here in the high desert country, it's hard to explain the quality of the light. I never saw anything like it back east. As we walked, the sun was shining in first one place then another, lighting up different parts of the landscape and throwing others into shadow. It was the kind of day when you're reminded how short a human life is, and how insignificant, compared to the size of the sky, and the centuries upon centuries of layers of rock exposed and carved by the wind.

So we got in another 5.3 miles or so, lots of up and down and scrambling through the thorny mesquite whenever the highway was too narrow. It may be spring now, but the mesquite are showing no signs of believing it - Cynthia tells me they are the very last thing to green up, and when they do start to bloom, that's when winter will really be over.

Saw another golden eagle, perched on a roadkill by the highway near Reserve. Once again, not fast enough with the camera. When spring does come, the eagles will all go north.