The Sphinx and Pahranagat NWR (Nevada adventures)

 I had the Monday after Easter off for teacher prep day!  Paul had heard about this little birding haven down in Nevada.  We looked it up and decided that was where we wanted to go.  It is about 2 hours away, but we got going early to make a good day of it.  We stopped along the way to see some pretty amazing mud carvings in Mesquite.  They were easy to find.  I had thought they were an AI hoax that someone put on Facebook, but after checking it out, they were real!  

Then we continued on and reached Pahranagat NWR a few minutes before the Visitor's Center opened.  The time change between UT/NV helped out.  We visited the awesome little visitor's center and did the short hikes to the old cabin and stone  building and then we drove down to the upper lake portion of the reserve.  We had seen the lower lake area driving by on the way.  We checked out the campsites which are right on the lake, but not very far from the busy highway running past.  Probably won't drive that far for any of those.  We hiked along the lake and enjoyed spotting plenty of the local zebra lizards.  Birds were not there in any number right now.  They said that a few weeks ago the pelican migration had come by and there were lots and lots of them.  Wish we would have seen that!  Probably in May they will have many more birds stopping by they said.  But, there we several kinds of ducks, and the lake was beautiful.  The upper part of the lake is divided by a dike that we walked across.  I don't know why, but it's crazy that the upper part is beautiful and clear, and the lower part is kind of a muddy color.  We ate lunch at a nice picnic area.  By then, it was time to head home.  We went home through Alamo, Caliente, and Panaca which are all small Nevada towns that seem to have survived even though their original reason for being settled is no longer the main thing.  We saw lots a beautiful scenery.  We really enjoyed the peacefulness at the refuge.  There were some people there, but it was so out in the middle of nowhere that it truly was a peaceful oasis.  They said when lots of birds get there, it can get pretty noisy!  I'm glad there are places like this to help the bird population survive.