Then we decided to take a backroad back home. We saw a sign that said, "Next Left" so we decided that was good enough for us. It didn't say anything besides "Next Left" though I believe it, at one time, did. So we turned left.
There was a broken down old house.
And next to it there was a water tank that was rusty and beautiful.
We drove along the road a bit longer and then I spotted HUGE pine cones. I'd never seen any so big in my life!
And these were some other lovely plants and flowers next to these mondo pine cones.
Then we drove some more and passed lots of sandstone that had tree roots growing out of it at random intervals. This was a really cool one.
Here are some horses. Its a mom and her two foals. One is on the ground laying down and the other one is trotting by the fence.
Last week in the newspaper there was an article about these plants. I think their name had "jerusalem" or perhaps "paw" in it, but I don't remember what they were called. And they are either super prickly or super sticky. But I didn't touch them so I couldn't tell you which it was. They were in a part that had been burned a couple years ago.
Which was very close to a small pond. There were some little mud hens (aka coots) but as I took the picture they dove into the water.
We drove along Pine Canyon Rd., a bit longer when we came to this pen.
I couldn't tell what the animals were beside the horse (thats why the above photo is blurry -- not cause I think blur is artistic or something silly...). Then I got closer and was able to use my zoom to see what these animals were. The littlest one walked away from me and then turned around.
I still don't know what that guy is, but he's cute. Then the other mystery animal came walking towards me. He was a blond donkey! And very friendly at that. He walked up to me and kept wanting to have me scratch and rub him. He was very adorable and I was happy that he came over to see me.
And when we finally got on Lake Elizabeth Rd., we saw a coyote. I was really surprised to see one in the day time. At first I thought it was a fawn but then I realised it was a coyote. He looked like he was doing well. I've only ever seen really lean coyotes.
And we inevitably stopped again to see the poppies from another angle.
And then we saw sheep! There were two whole fields of sheep grazing. They really like the wildflowers, the poppies and fiddleheads in particular.
The shepherd was out there tending the sheep too and some girls were talking to him about it I guess. They later took a picture of him so I'm assuming they weren't family or friends or anything. He looked like he was telling them what it was like being a "real life" shepherd.
And the shepherding dogs were very good. They kept an eye on the sheep and acted as crossing guard when the sheep would go across the street so they wouldn't get hit by the cars. It was fascinating to see it work so well. The dogs were totally chill and didn't seem to mind the sheep at all, what I'm trying to say is that they weren't bossy sheep dogs.
All in all it was a good trip and I was really happy to see so many parts of the valley that I wasn't familiar with. Not to mention all the animals that I met as well.
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