Skywatch Friday – Hot Summer Hike

I was up on Turkey Mountain Tuesday afternoon, watering the Monarch Way Station. A nursery had donated some plants to us on Saturday and we planted and watered them that day. It’s been scorching since so I watered them again. Still hot. Fortunately I have pretty good place to watch the watering, and the goings on in the main parking lot. Took me about an hour to do and I decided to go on a short hike.

I drove up to the upper parking lot and took off to what some call the “back country” to the northwest. Not near as many people that way. I saw two mountain bikers and another hiker during my trek. I used a combination of new trails including the above, and…

the older trails which still hold most of the mystery of Turkey Mountain to me. I can feel the history on Turkey Mountain. It’s had farmers, cattlemen, oilfield roughnecks and drillers, moonshining, and up until the cartels put them out of business, meth labs. I still think that there is a lot of monkey business goes on.

I was checking out the trees, many of them are wild and twisted. The competitive forces of nature at work.

Nature is just awesome. Below is the route I took.

And now a bonus section courtesy of NASA. It is the clearest view of Neptune us earthlings have seen since the Voyager 2 satellite moseyed by in 1989. This was shot with the James Webb Space Telescope.

New Webb Image Captures Clearest View of Neptune’s Rings in Decades
Photo courtesy of  NASA, ESA, CSA, STSc under a Creative Commons License. Click on photo to get the details.

It is shot in near infrared light so it is not as blue as previous images. You can see the rings (Neptune has rings? Now I know). And 14 moons!!!

18 thoughts on “Skywatch Friday – Hot Summer Hike

  1. Pat

    Turkey Mountain is really your happy place, Yogi! You are fortunate to be able to enjoy it now in retirement. It was hot here yesterday and today it was quite cool and rainy. Our oldest granddaughter sang the National Anthem with her school choir at the Rockies game tonight….so much fun but no one in the stands as it was raining hard.and there was a game delay.
    I love all the astronomy photos from NASA. My yoingest brother is an amateur astronomer and takes beautiful photos with his special equipment from a dark skies area in Massacusetts

  2. Alana

    Such an interesting walk! A shoutout for your volunteer work on behalf of our endangered monarch butterflies. And a shoutout to NASA, too, for that lovely photo.

  3. A ShutterBug Explores

    Great photos of your hike and so good of you to water the plants ~ sorry about the sensed ‘monkey business ~ hope it ceases soon ~ Xo

    Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

  4. Penelope Notes

    I look forward to the fall, more rain and less watering. The NASA shots, especially Neptune and its rings, are stunning. I wonder if life on some very distant planet would be just as amazed to discover Earth, the remarkable home of Turkey Mountain. 🙂

  5. Ellen

    There’s nothing better than finding yourself on a trail with only a handful of other people.

    Good for you for taking care of the Monarch’s. I spotted one flying around my pollinator garden a few days ago. We’ve got to get their numbers back up.

Comments are closed.