6/19/2012 – Catalina State Park campsite of the coyotes
This campsite seemed like any other, BUT, there were so many animals!
There are these holes covering the entire ground. At first I thought the worse, maybe tarantulas… but, to my happy surprise, instead they were adorable little prairie dog-looking-things. Maybe Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs? I don’t know, but they are little and playful.
There are tons of different birds, huge and tiny. I saw an owl fly by, heard a woodpecker and had a group of baby chicks living in a hole in the tree I set my hammock on (but they never popped up when I had my camera out). There were little fearless lizards everywhere. I didn’t spot a tarantula though.
Then, the mack-daddy of them all. Coyotes. I was sitting in my folding chair in the dark of night, sipping a beer, looking at the billions of stars, when I see a black dog-like figure walk through my camp! Only about 10 yards away! It was so dark that I thought that it could be anything really, a deer, a stray dog, or a mountain lion (I have no idea what is native to this area). I groped for my flashlight then realized it was still in my car. I went and got it, then came back and sat in the same place and waited for it to come around again.
It did! Or, at least, another one did! I flicked on my flashlight and it darted away almost too fast to see. But it certainly was canine-like. I decided to sleep in the car.
That night, I was awoken twice to the unmistakable shrieking howls of the coyotes, and there had to be dozens of them. It was amazing. Alas, no picture. But I did manage to get an audio recording of their howling, but I dont how to do that on this blog.
Neiner's Beer Garden Diary 