Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Carrizo Plain National Monument

Atascadero is about 1 1/2 hours from Carrizo Plain. For non-campers it really has the closest decent lodging options for the northern end of the park.  As it turned out, that 1 1/2 hour drive is really pretty and there are chances of spotting critters along the way.  

As we neared Carrizo Plain for the first time, my initial thoughts were that this wasn’t quite what I expected.  I expected more of a prairie habitat but the northern part of the park is basically a desert habitat.  While we knew the odds of seeing any wildflowers this year were slim due to the lack of rain, we didn’t expect such a dry and harsh environment.  In fact, my wife's knickname for the place is "Carrizo... really Plain". Of course, the fact that the howling winds hadn’t dissipated at all didn’t help with the first impression.  Our first drive along the main road in the park did turn up a few photo ops.

Carrizo Plain:
Carrizo Plain Entrance

 California Ground Squirrel:
California Ground Squirrel

 Ferruginous Hawk:
Ferruginous Hawk


The wind ended up driving us out of the park early since we grew tired of dodging the army of tumbleweeds attacking us (check out the video below).  The bad conditions even made us re-think a night drive.  So, instead we went to sleep early hoping that the wind would be better the next day.

The conditions were better the next morning.  We left Atascadero by 7AM and really enjoyed the drive to Carrizo Plain.  In fact, we spotted 4 deer (the only ones of the trip), 2 roadrunners, and a coyote on the drive in.   We also had better luck in Carrizo and managed some good wildlife sightings throughout the day.

San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel:
San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel


Shelby Rocks:
Shelby Rocks, Carrizo Plain




Gopher Snake:
Gopher Snake



Common Side-blotched Lizard:
 Common Side-blotched Lizard

View from Soda Lake Lookout:
Soda Lake, Carrizo Plain



We headed back to Atascadero for an early dinner with plans to drive all the way back to Carrizo in the evening with hopes of spotting some nocturnal wildlife.  The San Joaquin Kit fox was our main target after dark but we also wanted to see the Giant Kangaroo Rat.

The desert Cottontails were out in force at sunset around the visitor center:
Desert Cottontail

We also spotted a Giant Kangaroo Rat after dark at the visitor center but the darn thing wouldn't stop darting in and out of the old farm equipment and I couldn't get a decent photo of it.  Frustrating!  I had read that these rats would tend to stay still when caught in the beam of a flashlight.  Not this one!  Just when I had enough light on it to focus and press the shutter, the darn thing would hop a foot to the right..."damn".  Then, I would line it up again and it would hop a foot to the left..."damn".  This went on about 5 times before it hopped under the farm equipment and wouldn't come out..."double damn!".

We had received tips that the area around the Visitor Center was a good place to spot the Kit fox so we waited in the dark for a while hoping to spot something but after an hour or so of hanging out with only the Kangaroo Rat spotted (but not photographed), we decided to cruise the roads for a while.

Our luck on the roads was no better.  We did manage to see one more Giant Kangaroo Rat and I barely managed to get its butt in focus before it hopped away:

Giant Kangaroo Rat


The drive back was quite eventful.  I have never encountered so many rodents running across the road before.  We must have had close to 20 run across the road in front of our car.  Luckily, I think I managed to avoid all of them.  They were all likely Pocket Mouse of some sort with a Kangaroo Rat or too as well.  It kept me from falling asleep at the wheel.

The weather the next day was really nice.  Sunny and not very windy at all.  We ended up spending an hour or so around the visitor center watching the Antelope Squirrels run around.  They are great fun to watch.

San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel


San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel Grazing


We also took a few hikes and did our best to look for snakes and other reptiles.   We came up empty in the snake department but did see quite a few lizards and the ground squirrels were running around everywhere.

We drove Soda Lake road all the way south to Maricopa.  The south end of Carrizo Plain did actually have some green and even a few flowers.  It is more like what we expected the whole place to be.  But, there was no wildlife out at all and the green was few and far between.  Our route home was through Taft and then north on I5.  It was far from a pretty or even pleasant drive so we hustled north as fast as we could.  Any plans to visit the eastern entrance of Pinnacles were quickly dismissed as the hour grew later and the need to get home grew stronger.

Overall, we felt is was an OK trip.  The wind obvious played a huge factor in the lack of wildlife sightings but the dry conditions sure didn't help either.  We do plan on returning to Pinnacles and Carrizo in the future.  But, that will probably wait until we are in a position to take a spontaneous trip when we get reports of good conditions.  We have seen pictures of the wildflowers around both parks and they can be spectacular.  We would like to see that someday.

Here's a compilation video from the trip that gives a good idea of just how windy it was:


Mammals Photographed (new in Bold):
- San Joaquin Antelope Squirrel
- Giant Kangaroo Rat
- California Ground Squirrel
- Black-tailed Deer
- Desert Cottontail
- Pronghorn
- Coyote
- Black-tailed Jackrabbit


New Birds Photographed:
- Horned Lark
- California Towhee
- Ferruginous Hawk
- Swainson's Hawk
- California Thrasher
- Common Poorwill

New Reptiles Photographed:
- Common Side-blotched Lizard
- Gopher Snake
 

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