As there remains only a few days left in the year, I thought it would be good to combine some of the best photos from this years field work and post it on the blog. I would have included some of Ayesha's field work too but she does not have any photos on this computer. The majority of the field work I did this year was on the San Juan River which meanders through the Northwest corner of New Mexico into Colorado and then approximately 120 miles into Utah before becoming a part of Lake Powell. We survey 140 miles of river via raft to see if two endangered species of fish (razorback sucker, Xyrauchen texanus, and Colorado pikeminnow, Ptychocheilus lucius) are reproducing. Our evenings are often spent hiking or playing horseshoes or sitting on our ass recouping, and drinking beer. The photos that follow are some of those hikes, no need to see pictures of us drinking beer around a campfire.
These are some views from an area around Aneth Utah during the April survey. April is often cold and windy and few of the trees along the river corador have leaves.
In the distance beyond the San Juan River is Ute Mountain. When the mountain is visible I get cell phone coverage and am able to talk to Ayesha. I give cheer aloud to the mountain when I see it.
Spring finally arrives in May. You can see leaves on the cottonwoods along the floodplain.
This is a facinating area surounding in the river on the Navajo Reservation. In this one particular area there are Anasazi ruins, petrogyphs, dinosaur bones, and strange geologic formations. The mountains in the background are the Carrizo Mountains in Arizona.
To give some scale to this landscape is my compadre, Adam, making his way to the top of the hill.
Back down along the flood planes are some very old large cottonwood trees, I wish I had Adam as scale for this photo as these trees are massive.
Farther downstream and yet another month (June) the San Juan River flows into a very different landscape. The San Juan River has carved a meandering path through towering limestone cliffs as it makes its way to the Colorado River (currently Lake Powell).
Although the lake has swallowed much of the amazing landscapes and canyons of the Colorado River there is a facinating website in which you can see these places pre-Glen Canyon Dam. As one gets closer to the Colorado River the limestone cliffs are replaced with monolithic sandstone cliffs. One of the highlights of this years field surveys was to see the aftermath of two huge rockslide which occurred in late May in the lower canyon. Below you can see the fan of rubble and boulders that have extended out from this canyon (yes, all that material used to not be there!). If you look hard enough you can see our raft parked along the newly deposited debris
Farther up the canyon was a train of huge boulders all new additions from the rock slide. Again, Adam is good scale to the size of material that was moved by this event.
Father up the canyon still we went. Adam is located a little left of center.
The view from the portion of the canyon where we had become cliffed out and had to turn around.
back downstream the next morning to continue our work...
The July trip started out with strong upstream winds and rain. It seems like many of our field days were overcast or rainy this year!
This area is just upstream of the Four Corners. It is one of my favorite camps in this area as the canyons and bluffs provides lots to explore...
such as petroglyphs! This design was etched into the sandstone above the remains of an Anasazi dwelling.
Here are images of what I think are big horn sheep and bear prints, a dogs paw print and other shapes and figures......turn around and see the view over looking the river valley and the Carrizo Mountains
The veiw from the top of the bluff, there are so many moments that are absolutely breath taking. It is now time to get back to camp, cook a lot of food and drink some beer!
Further downstream we came across this large ruin set upon a bluff over looking the San Juan River, upstream of the town Aneth, Utah.
Sunset that night at camp.
In August I found myself back in the canyon bound reaches of the San Juan River.
We saw a herd of big horn sheep, some of which have radio collars.
Here is a picture of our trusty raft. It has been through over ten years of river work, a couple pins on rapids and trips through Russian olives, it is still holding strong. On the back of the boat is our firewood for the night.
Now an introduction to the fish we are studing, in their adult form! In their larval form I would need a microscope to show you what they look like. Viola, the razorback sucker!
In September we were helping some agencies out with their non-native removal efforts on the San Juan River, attempting to rid the river of channel catfish and common carp. Rafts are equipped with generators and raft-mounted electrofishers. Yep we shock em'!
This is a photo of the other endangered species Colorado pikeminnow. This is only a young fish, like the razorback sucker these fish get really big and live up to forty years.
All the shocking boats await departure in the morning.
Lastly, my last trip down the San Juan River in September, the last larval survey of 2009. The view from above our camp downstream of Mexican Hat, Utah. Our raft is located in the lower right corner.
We took another evening hike up Trimble Canyon, the site of the second of the rock slides that occurred in May. Prior to the rock slide there was a beautiful spring located up the canyon. We hiked up to see if it still remained.
The source of the spring was unaltered however to pool which held water was completly scoured out. There was still a pool and tadpoles and invertebrates swimming around.
One more storm cell to move over our camp on the last night out on the San Juan River.
