Another desert drive

It rained Monday night and into Tuesday.    Dave and I are fighting a little cold so we took the rainy desert time to just relax.   We did a bit of grocery shopping but otherwise did nothing of any note.

The "winter storm" moved out yesterday it was a beautiful and sunny day.   Golf happened.

the Wrights herd the 9th hole Wigeons

Today we spent a lazy morning at Beluga then headed out to check out a spot that sounded interesting.

our beautiful site

The Wright's went out on a hike and we took the Jeep to see if we could find a geographic area called the gas domes.

I love riding through miles and miles of emptiness.   The sky is so blue, the sand patterns so mesmerizing, the quiet so absolute.  Peace.

We discovered some interesting concretions and small, quirky rock formations.

and ended up at a couple of small, bubbling gas domes.   The grey volcano like mud pots are cold to the touch with large gas bubbles rising to the surface in an irregular pattern.

We left the gas domes and followed the trail through the stark desert.   We came upon a small artesian well left when a 1919 oil exploration discovered geothermal water instead of oil.  The only evidence was a sputtering pipe at the base of a small palm tree.  Warmish water spurted from the pipe and created a narrow channel of water running off into the desert.

Birdsong.....birdsong in the otherwise silent desert.   We both remarked on the wonderful sounds at the well. 

There was a small flock of what we finally decided were Horned Larks.   From these terribly fuzzy photos, what do you think?    We want to go back sometime and just sit quietly with binoculars to see what the water brings us.

We enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner at Carmelitas with the Wrights when we returned home and now we're all settled down for the evening.