Those with expertise in desert plants find the Sandy Valley interesting
in that it has areas indicative of 3 different distinct desert ecosystems:
the Great Basin, Mojave, and Chihuahuan. In an hours ride
you can pass through stands of the sage and salt brush common in Great
Basin deserts; then spots rich in creosote bush and joshua trees as
common in the Mojave deserts; and then a little ways on see groves
of mesquite shrubs and prickly pear cactus most common in Chihuahuan
deserts.
Desert plants are remarkably hardy and have developed equally remarkable
tricks to deal with low moisture and sparse soils of the american
southwest. If you were to pour a few cups of water over a square
foot of apparently barren dust higher up on a ridge then return in
a few days, you'd likely be stunned at the plant live that suddenly
appears as if by magic. Scientists have found that a square
meter of such "empty" desert dirt can contain between 5,000 and 10,000
seeds of local plants lying dormant just waiting for their moment.
Early spring (late February into March) is an especially beautiful
time in the Sandy Valley as that is when you're most likely to seen
the delicate flowers of the indigenous plants.
One beautiful and sweet smelling bloom is the
desert primrose. It's the latin name (Oenothera brevipes) means
"shortfoot," as the primrose keeps its flowers down close to the ground.
An especially wet late fall and winter assure a good crop of these
beautiful white to light red flowers. They are most common low
in the valley. You might also see prince plume, a member
of the mustard family with a distinct 2 to 3 foot long stalk of yellow
flowers.
Another outstanding bloom is the lovely desert
san verbena which you'll also see in lower elevations of the Sandy
Valley. It especially likes to hug the few roadsides in the
valley, where it likes to soak up that extra bit of moisture that
drains off the hardpack. We're a tad high for particularly
huge spreads of these flowers, but as you drive in from Las Vegas
in early spring you might see large carpets of its trumpet shaped,
pink flowers each 2 to 3 inches wide. You'll certainly
know if they're near, even with your eyes closed, as the pungent smell
of their perfume in unmistakable.
As you climb up the ridges both the number and size of blooms decreases,
but never disappears entirely. You might take a moment when
off your horse to get down close to the ground and take a look.
At the right times of year you will see remarkable little paradises
of flowering plants and mosses that are simply out of this world.
You might carry a lupe or small folding magnifying glass to better
enjoy the remarkable detail of these tiny gems.
So when do the flowers bloom in Sandy Valley?
Well that varies from year to year, depending on the amount of winter
precipitation, weather patterns, and the like. Generally, late
February through mid March is a good bet. Give us a call or
send an email for updates from the ranch starting in early February.
Plants and animals have a complex love-hate relationship here in the
valley. For on the one hand, both the indigenous vegetarians
like the pronghorn antelope and mule deer and introduced animals like
our horses are quick to bite the tender little heads off of growing
plants. But on the other hand, many local plant species would
be sunk were it not for the hooves of these herbivores breaking the
hard soil down as they pass by, adding, er, the organic matter essential
for plant life to that soil, and by spreading seeds as they charge
through through meadows as the plant seeds charge through them.
A Desert Bighorn Ram
Native Creatures
Mammals:
The prehistoric animals that inhabited the Sandy Valley before the
last ice age about 10,000 years ago must have been a heck of a sight
-- and a pretty spooky sight at that: woolly mammoths 16 feet tall
at the shoulder, giant ground sloths with claws the size of a man's
hand, saber tooth cats with, well, saber teeth! Yeowsa!
We don't think any of us here at the ranch (except maybe for Big
Tony) would like to bump one of those beasties in the dark.
But no need to loose sleep today, as those species have been extinct
for at least 9,000 years. We think...
But there is still plenty of wildlife to see today. Pronghorn
antelope are quite a common site in and near the Sandy Valley.
Higher up on the ridges, especially on west and north facing slopes,
you might see mule deer -- once you see one there is no mistaking
how they got their name, wow, those ears! Desert bighorn sheep
are an endangered species, but sighting on on the highest and most
rugged summits is not uncommon in the Sandy Valley.
Watch for motion on those rock faces that seem impossible for any
creature to climb... you'd be amazed.
Chasing these herd animals are our largest local carnivores, coyotes
and mountain lions. And while coyotes do on occasion pull
down a deer or antelope by working together in a pack, most of their
diet is made up of smaller fare like ground squirrels, desert wood
rats, kangaroo rats, their junior cousins kangaroo mice, even grasshoppers.
Now you won't too often see these little coyote snacks when out
on the ranch -- because if you can see them, brother coyote certainly
can see them, and if that happens they're usually toast.
Coyote or gray fox? (A coyote pup.)
If you are out in the cool of the morning or at dusk with one of
our wranglers they can often point out a coyote or two heading out
or back from a night of hunting. Seeing a mountain lion on
the ranch or anywhere in their range is a rare treat indeed, as
they are so stealthy it seems they can appear and disappear at will.
But every so often our staff and guests do see them.
Smaller local carnivores include bobcats, gray fox, and the endangered
kit fox. Foxes are much smaller than most people who have
not seen them expect, in fact most could fit in a big guys hat.
They are also far more wary than coyotes, not surprising as the
coyotes will make a quick snack of them if they can, though they
almost never can.
A rare bobcat sighting
Bobcats are such masters of apparent invisibility as to make even
mountain lions look clumsy and easy to find. Here again, we
know from tracks and the occasional sighting that they're here among
us, but even the best of our local trackers would be unlikely
to take on a wager to find one in a hurry.
Birds:
We've got many species of birds in the Sandy Valley, some rare or
endangered in much of their range but relatively common here.
Turkey vultures can have a 7 foot wingspan
Large local raptors include the bald eagle, turkey vulture, western
burrowing owl, and red-tailed hawk (also called buteos locally)
-- the hawks renowned for their haunting shrill cry. Surprisingly,
you're as likely to see one of these magnificent birds sitting on
a fence post alongside the road as you drive in as anywhere -- for
they're as smart as they look and are quite happy to let you dispatch
their lunch for them with your vehicle. Hey, why work up a
sweat?
One especially interesting bird is, well, not a bird at all -- though
like most you'll likely have a hard time believing that when you
first see one. We're talking about sphinx moths -- the
most common local species being the white-lined sphinx moth.
These large moths emerge at dusk from their hiding places and feed
on the nectar of flowers just as hummingbirds do. They beat
their wings extremely rapidly just like hummingbirds, are the same
size and light color as the female of many common hummingbird species.
Heck, they even have what appears to be the long thin beak of a
hummingbirds -- but this is what gives them away, if you watch carefully
enough. For their long "beak" bends, you'll even see it on
occasion roll right up in a ball at the moths mouth. Bird
beaks don't do that, now do they.
Where's the geology? You're standing on it...
Geology: As you travel out of Las Vegas on your was to Sandy
Valley, look north of the highway and you'll see red sandstone cliffs
of the the Red Rock Canyon area. These sandstones are part
of the Kaibab level (same as at the top of the Grand Canyon) and
date back about 200 million years ago to the Jurassic period (yes,
your kids are right, "Just Like Dinosaurs!").
As you get closer to Sandy Valley you'll notice more frequent intrusions
of a gray limestone called Good Springs dolomite. This rock
is significantly older -- dating from the Devonian period about
350 million years ago -- but was pushed over the top of the younger
Jurassic period red sandstone around 150 million years ago by movement
along the many fault zones found just west of the Sandy Valley.
Found nearby, but not local: a meteorite
These nearby fault zones, including the major Bristol-Granite, Garlock,
Nipton, Cedar Canyon, and San Andreas faults, pushed and pulled
and essentially mixed the geology of the Sandy Valley into a veritable
wonderland of interesting geological sites. There are a dizzying
number of outcrops made up a dozen or more layers of the earth's crust,
made up of dozens of different minerals. This explains the many
mine sites, most now abandoned ghost towns, in the area. Places
where early settlers dug for silver, lead, gypsum, even talc.
On highway I-15 just west of the Sandy Valley, you'll see mine shafts
up high on the the red rock mountainsides. These are old gypsum
mines which were abandoned early in this century. But
gypsum is still mined on a very large scale at the nearby Blue Diamond
Mine.
