Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Long Valley Creek

While this looks like a lake reflecting the Sierra Nevadas, it's actually Long Valley Creek in , wait for it, Long Valley, California. I know there are a lot of Long Valleys, but this one runs from the Nevada state line all the way up to Honey Lake. It is a long valley.
There are at least a half dozen dams in this area - beaver?? They cause the creek to slow down and widen, so it's at this point I see a variety of passing birds - a wetlands hotel of sorts. If you look carefully, you can see a pair of Canadian geese near the bottom on the right. This is where they have chosen to raise their little family this year.
The Southern Pacific Railroad passes through here on it's way from Winnemucca to Portola and on clear days we can hear that lonesome whistle and the thrumming of the diesel engines all the way to our house, in spite of the mountain between us.
The snow is melting and there is a lot of water flowing right now. This morning I saw a small herd of about a dozen pronghorn antelope that had just crossed the creek and were on the outside bank. They are absolutely lovely to see and dangerous to watch at 70 mph.

4 comments:

Lee said...

Wow. What an amazingly beautiful place you live! Wow.

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

tenos left you a trap Sharon...

Lovely pictures, esspecially the one with Canadian geese :)

You should have ticked off your boss and took pictures of them, your boss would have gotten over it ;-)

Laura said...

Um, it's Canada Geese, not Canadian...

There's something about water in the desert that is so miraculous - even though it's relatively fleeting, it's a wonder.

cindy said...

Lovely pictures especially the phone pic in another post.

Steer clear of the antelope.