In the beginning, there was Los Angeles...

Here are some holiday snaps to get us started.

En route to Venice, we popped in on Amy's graduation.

We met Joe.

And hung out with Lemmon.

And other friends of Amy's.

A few days later, Joe took us out to the high desert.

                               

Our second snake sighting of the day.

The first snake crossed our path right at the beginning of the track and was long and grey, and fast.

This rattler, on the other hand, was far too curious for comfort.

At the bottom of the valley, Joe led the way across the river.

Finn cools off in the river while Amy & Joe bask in a hot pool.

That's right - hot pools, in the desert, naturally forming in the rocks of a really pretty damn cold river.

Glorious.

Until... 

That's right - the third snake of the day was a visitor in our hot pool!

After the rattle snake we were all totally jumpy about the prospect of more snakes. My greatest fear was snakes in the water, but really, who actually expects this to happen?!

The great rubbish hike back up the big hill.

Joe collected every cigarette butt he passed (that's what his bucket's full of), and Finn attempted to slice his leg off at the calf with a broken Jim Beam bottle he had safely stowed in his plastic bag.

The end of a beautiful day.

What better way to top it all off than a trip to In-N-Out Burger as we set off on our two hour drive home...

Animals we encountered on our desert hike:

1 roadrunner

1 silver backed desert guinea pig (or something)

3 snakes - 1 long, grey, unidentified type

 1 huge (according to our American companion and hiking guide) black rattle snake

 1 hot pool snake

Too many desert squirrels to count

Many lizards. Lizards like dinosaurs, not skinks or geckos. 1 was particularly large, the rest smaller.

10 June 2011