Wiley Coyote and Posse
Traveling throughout the desert, I haven’t really seen any of the inhabitants with the exception of our last trip. Now mind you, when I hiked into Darwin Falls I thought it was really cool that people were riding their horses into the falls. I did find it a bit strange that it was allowed because it is the water source for Panamint Springs. Little did I know that there is a healthy population of burros in Death Valley and what I thought was sign of domestic horses turned out to be signs of wild burros. They are kind of cute. They even have signs warning you of their existence.
So cut to our recent trip. I was hoping that in our travels we would run across some burros that I could photograph. We did. Right there along Highway 190. Standing out there in the open. Crazy. They are so cute. I could totally be down with taking one home if I could get them to get into the pickup.
These burros are descendants of those brought to the United States by Spaniards in the 1500’s. They are called an invasive species in some places. In fact, in Death Valley they are the target of a “zero burros goal”.
Another inhabitant of the desert is the much smaller tarantula. I am a bit on the scared side of tarantulas but I am told that they are harmless. At least the ones that we were running into!
The Roadrunner was another animal of the desert. We only saw one. He lived at the Panamint Springs Resort near the restaurant. You can’t have a desert without a roadrunner!
So if you can’t have a desert without a roadrunner, you can’t have a roadrunner without a coyote right? The Canis latrans is one animal that I haven’t seen during my visits to Death Valley. This time I saw them everywhere! They have no fear of the road. They hide on the side of the road near the culverts to dash across after you have passed them. They lay right on the side of the road kicking it. They have no fear of humans. They watch you drive by like we people watch in the mall. They are pretty brazen.
Once such example of this is when we were leaving the park down through the Shoshone side we ran across a coyote standing in the middle of the road. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Watch out for Wiley Coyote.
Mike: I see him.
Mike slows down and we creep around Wiley. Wiley starts chasing us.
Me: The coyote is chasing us.
Mike: What?
Me: The coyote is chasing us.
Mike slows down and the coyote catches up to us. Mike speeds up. The coyote speeds up.
Me: I think he is thirsty (I was kind of joking about this).
Mike: Give me a water bottle.
Mike stops the pickup, cuts bottle and makes a bowl. Needless to say, the coyote was thirsty. We all know that you aren’t supposed to feed the wild animals. We know this. Even Mike. But Mike can be a rebel despite my attempts to reform him (hee hee - said tongue in cheek!). He just had to give this guy some water. I had all these visions of this wild animal ripping Mike's face off and me either having to choose to love him despite the horrid disfigurements or waiting patiently for his face transplant. Thank God Operation Watering Wiley went off without a hitch.
What’s a girl to do?