The Halloween season has come to a close which brings with it a mixture of sadness and relief. We hate to see it end, but it also feels like the steam has finally been released from the pressure cooker. Yesterday (the 1st) was “Spirit Day” as we have come to call it. The night before the haunters were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of ghouls and monsters danced in their heads. Away to the local Spirit “popup” Halloween store we flew like a flash for what to our wondering eyes should appear but an entire store at 50% off. A bundle of props we flung on our backs. We were heard to exclaim as we drove out of sight, we can’t wait until the next haunt night! Actually, there is a little pressure still left in the cooker as I have to find places to store all the new stuff – eh, worry about that another day ha. In addition to celebrating another successful haunting season I also managed to reach an annual running goal. In all the Halloween chaos and injury setbacks, I managed to still hit my 1200 mile annual running goal – 60 days early!
I mainly bring this up as a lead in to let you know Brad will be taking the helm to give me a badly needed rest and because his post happens to be about another trail “speed demon”.
Take it away Brad (and Jan)…
Let me set the stage here for you.
It’s late September. Jan and I are in a National Park in southern Nevada just outside Las Vegas. We are in the desert with Red Rock all around. That’s right, it’s Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas. The temperature is in the upper 80’s or low 90’s at 4pm. Yes, we remembered to bring water with us.
We flashed our Annual Park Pass (surely you all have one of these beauties by now) at the entrance gate and started on the 13-mile scenic drive to see what we could see. One of the first things we saw surprised us a little bit.
It was a “Tortoise Crossing” sign. I figured the chances of seeing a Desert Tortoise were just as high as our seeing a Bighorn Sheep in Arches National Park (still haven’t seen one there, despite the myriad of road signs). Although the Elk Crossing signs near Estes Park, CO are very accurate.
About four miles into the scenic drive, we came upon a white sedan with its doors open and flashers on, taking up the right side of the road. We crept past and parked to see if they needed any help. Two young men (college age I’m guessing) were kneeling in front of the car. I suspected car trouble.
Imagine the surprise when Jan and I got out of our car to find out what they were doing.
Hit the jump to find out what the surprise was!
The two men were holding onto a Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) to keep it from running into traffic.
The tortoise shell was about 12” long and 10” wide, not counting the legs, tail or head and neck. I believe this Desert Tortoise was probably fully grown. Remember, tortoises are found on land, turtles are found in the water. Just then another tourist car drove by to shout out some useless information about what to do with the tortoise and sped off (hope the park rangers caught them later on). The two that were kneeling said they had been trying to keep the tortoise out of the road for a little while, but cars kept buzzing by. We decided to take it where it wanted to ago; across the road to the other side (there’s a joke about a chicken in there somewhere).
The two college kids carried it across the road while Jan and I stopped the drivers speeding by. They set it down on the opposite side of the road and it took off. I’ve seen tortoises move before, but nothing prepared me for how quickly this guy was moving. Desert Tortoise can travel up to 0.30 MPH (about 1,600 feet per hour). Yes indeed, that is the blinding speed of almost 1/3 MPH. This one was doing every bit of that, maybe even up to 0.32 MPH! Jan said it was getting in some uphill speed work for an upcoming desert trail run.
Jan positioned herself ahead of the tortoise and kept snapping pictures. It was moving so rapidly, she had to walk backwards rather quickly.
It wasn’t until we saw the photos later, we realized the tortoise had a mouthful of something green and was munching away the entire time. The Desert Tortoise diet consists of mainly grasses, flowers, fruit and cactus. Their food contains almost all of the water the tortoise needs; which is a good thing because it may not come across fresh water for up to a year at a time. We looked around a little bit, but didn’t see any Tootsie-Pop wrappers or paper sticks. (Kids, ask your parents, or grandparents, about Tootsie-Pop commercials from the last century. Better yet, look them up on YouTube. Better still, go ask Mr. Owl.)
Desert Tortoise are listed as a threatened species due to habitat loss, road mortality and predation of their eggs and hatchlings. A Desert Tortoise will spend much of the year under rocks or in burrows to conserve water and regulate their body temperature. Knowing all of that, we were lucky to see one at all. Jan and I were happy to help this one transit safely across the road. Hopefully, it will live a long and happy life away from the speeding tourists we encountered. A Desert Tortoise can live up to 80 years if it can avoid the many dangers it faces. We’ve come to the end.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more photos from our SW National Park tour, please visit here.
Credits
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Allyson’s assignment is ending soon. Thanks to Jan nearly all of the photos in this article.
Life Intrigued 