Rivers, fires & creatures

Varying elevations throughout the White Mountain Range create a diversity of landscape to enjoy as we wander back roads.  Depending on the north/south orientation of any particular area, we move from marshy flower-filled meadows to piñon/juniper hillsides or steep-slope stands of towering ponderosas, from meandering streams to rushing whitewater and lakes, ponds and tanks of every description.

One section of the Black River, called Three Forks, was especially welcoming with a tranquil sense as it lolled lazily through high grass before winding into the surrounding forest with quiet pools.  As we discerned from the signage, that wetland is home to three rare species: the Three Forks springsnail, California floater and the Chiricahua leopard frog.

 

Big Lake lookout. . .

We have checked out just about every lake within a day's drive from Alpine.  Big Lake, as the name implies, is the largest.  When we saw a turnoff to the Big Lake lookout, we headed over that way and determined to climb up to it.  Chris was willing to give it a try and proceeded slowly upward.

What a surprise when we gained the top and discovered there was no lookout!  As we explored the summit and wondered about the splatters on the rocks, it finally dawned on us that we were seeing melted aluminum and that there really had been a lookout, but that it had burned.  We guessed that it might have been a casualty of the 2011 Wallow Fire; indeed, later research confirmed that.

Only two years previous to that, the fire tower had been placed on the Historic Fire Lookout register.  It was constructed in 1933.  The residential cabin that had been with it had also been destroyed, along with nearly 540,000 acres of stupendous forests.  The conflagration began from an untended campfire in the Bear Wallow Wilderness area - what a tragedy!  As we roam these regions, we see stark reminders of it and other wildfires that have devastated huge swaths of landscape.

Our view from the fire tower summit.

 This is what we would have seen if we had climbed up there before the Wallow Fire.

In many places, aspens are repopulating burned areas.

 

We continued along the course of the Black River in awe of its beauty as it flowed down from the heights and continued its meander, often backing up to form pristine pools.

Through those regions, we added to the trip's bird list with white-breasted nuthatch, American pipit, northern flicker, ruddy duck, redhead, dark-eyed junco, horned lark, Brewer's blackbird and red-tailed hawk.

As we climbed out from the Black's valley, we spotted a rancher with his three dogs and pack horse heading out to do some fence work.  I loved the ingenious way he had cut rubber car tires to hold his fence stays.

Creatures! . . .

We did quite the double-takes when we passed a pasture that housed three creatures of a species we could not begin to name.  All I could come up with was that they looked like long-haired mules.  In fact, there was a mule in the pasture with the dreadlocked creatures, but there did not seem to be any camaraderie between them.

As it turns out, I was correct in my assessment: the mystery was solved with a read in Wikipedia:

"The Baudet du Poitou, also called the Poitevin or Poitou donkey, is a French breed of donkey. It is one of the largest breeds, and jacks (donkey stallions) were bred to mares of the Poitevin horse breed to produce Poitevin mules, which were formerly in worldwide demand for agricultural and other work. The Baudet has a distinctive coat, which hangs in long, ungroomed locks or cadenettes.

The Baudet developed in the former province of Poitou, possibly from donkeys introduced to the area by the Romans."

Who would have imagined that such a rare animal (only 450 in the world) would be hanging out here in Alpine!