NOTE: I was editing this post from my phone and accidentally deleted most of it. Luckily, the original was already in Google's cache and so I've been able to reconstruct it.

I just got in from hiking at Red Rock. I need a shower and a nap, but the excitement of posting photos always keeps me from the necessary things. My friend Ivan called me the other day inviting me to guide him and his couch crasher-- a lady from Switzerland who's name I can't recall now as I'm very bad with names but I'm sure it started with an S-- on a trail at Red Rock. So this morning at seven we headed out to do the Calico Basin trail, which I hadn't done for a year or so. We arrived fairly early, around 8am, and there were few people on the trail. I believe we passed only three on the way in, and three on the way out, but we had the tinaja and viewpoint all to ourselves for about 30 minutes. 'Twas very nice. Oh! When we arrived at the trailhead, there was a gentleman walking up to the parking lot from the Calico Vista trail, and we could hear him coming before we saw him. For some reason, this guy was not satisfied with the peace and tranquility of nature. Oh, no, he was not content to enjoy the serenity of the canyon and leave behind, for just a few hours, the noise of the city. Instead, he strapped to his person an annoyingly loud stereo so that he might broadcast R&B music to all who came within hearing distance, which was about 100 feet. How profane.

Once we started down the trail, leaving him to do his pretend-to-enjoy-the-outdoors-while-ruining-it-for-everyone-else thing, the trip got better. Here are the few photos I took along the way.

The tinaja, or water basin, is at the end of the trail, on the east end of the Calico Hills. After heavy snows and rain a few years ago, it was quite a few feet deeper than it is today. Now, you can see the bottom of the basin through the two or three feet of water that remains. The dragon flies were numerous. We saw plenty of small lizards, as well; one frog and two chuckwallas. Unfortunately I had my camera in my backpack when we came upon the chuckwallas and I didn't get a photo of them. They're not uncommon here, but I've only seen them a few times out in the wild. Most people do not often see such large lizards in their natural habitat.

Ivan, S and I pose beside the tinaja. Ivan seems gargantuan, and while he is a bit taller than I and S, it's the sloped rock that exaggerates his height.

Ivan sits staring into the black depths of the tinaja after a water demon leapt up from the water, snatched his shirt, and descended back into the watery abyss.

La Madre Mountain rises in the distance behind Calico Hills.

Me, Karsten, always slightly out-of-focus, on the east end of Calico Hills, with the hazy Vegas valley behind me.

Ivan and S take a photo while resting on the Calico Basin trail.

That is all. I must shower and nap now.