valley of fire and other sundry photos...

i know, i know. it's been a long, long, long, long time since i've posted anything new, so here's some pictures of my latest adventures.

last weekend i went to phoenix on a vehicle shopping mission. i went and looked at some dealerships, drove a couple of vehicles and came away empty handed but with a lot more knowledge of what i'm looking for. besides that i've just been working and having a great time! the humidity has been uncomfortable right on the river, getting up to 75-80% regularly every morning when we're starting work. and then it gets hotter and hotter as the minutes tick by and by no time i'm covered in a thick layer of sweat. it's good that i'm not overly concerned about my appearance while in the field - the sweat soaked clothing and hair sometimes just don't seem all that ravishing.
this is me, working, at one of my favorite survey routes on the bill williams river wildlife refuge. soooo green!
this is amanda and murrelet (leading) walking up the river to our next survey point.
a HUGE bee hive. good thing for me i'm not really poking it with a stick!
this is murrelet, the project leader (aka my boss). we are doing some of the lesser liked part of the project, starting the vegetation plots by sampling the soil moisture. getting to some of these points requires human contortionist acts to get through all the undergrowth. and the hardest thing is that we try not to clear a trail into these so that we don't alter the data of the next time we come through. it makes for a very tiring and sweaty day.

this is me with one of the friendly cicada's that dignify our ears with a deafening thunder towards mid-day. they also serve as an important food source for a lot of the birds. this one had a delinquent wing, which prevented it from flying away from us.this is eli, amanda and me when we were traveling north to overton, nevada. every survey period (there are four during the summer) the technicians rotate with the supervisors and head to different areas of the colorado river.
i asked amanda and eli to just pretend that i wasn't there so that i could get some candid shots. that's when they started modeling for me. do you think this is "vogue" material? haha!
a beautiful morning during one of our northern surveys.
this is me in the "valley of fire". during our afternoons we have free time so we were able to do some sightseeing. this place is gorgeous!
this sandstone had been dissolved away by the water, creating some pretty spectacular formations.
me and an arch...
and last but not least, "the road less traveled" or "a cool road picture". you choose the title. and yeah, i know, we've all seen roads but those roads can take us through some pretty spectacular places. if only gas prices weren't so high...