Winter in the Preserve

With the wet winter that we had, one of the things that I like to do is go out and see how local conditions have changed as a result of the increased precipitation. I enjoy the changes from our normal drought conditions. I decided to go for a hike in the Whitewater Preserve with Charlene for just this purpose. As we started our hike we were treated to a view of Bighorn Sheep on the cliffs above us.

They are just a little below the top

Here's a close-up

This is normally a dry stream bed

After walking along for a ways, the canyon splits and the trail heads east, where it will head up out of the canyon bottom.

This marks the start of the canyon split

My friend Hal hasn't been here recently, he doesn't tolerate ducks very well

From here the trail heads up the ridge on the left

This is where we stopped, San Gorgonio is left of center

The water in the stream was flowing a little too much for us to consider trying to cross

Notice the patterns in the water, it's forming waves and rolling some good sized rocks

On the way back we stopped to look at this rock formation, it's different from anything else in the area.

As we hiked back to the trailhead we kept gazing at the cliffs where we had seen the bighorn, wondering if we'd see them again.

Sure enough, even closer to us than before, we saw one on the ledge below the light colored band. Seeing so much water and the bighorn made for a great hike!