Massacre Grounds

[azhiker96]

Saturday morning I hit the trail about 5am and headed towards the Massacre grounds. I had no real plan, just wandering around the desert. I stuck to the plan for about 5.5 hours. I started at First Water TH and then passed through the Massacre grounds. I found I had to skirt the cliffs by a fair margin. There was a raptor, a Prairie Falcon I think, who took exception to my presence. I'm betting there is a nest in the cliffs. If I were moving towards the cliff or within 80 yards of it at all, she would constantly berate me. She also made over a dozen passes at me, some to about 10 feet overhead. I didn't want to stress her out so I moved away but I bet if I'd ventured closer she'd have taken my hat off. Anyway, I wandered East through the valley imagining the route of Peralta's crew as they tried to make their escape over 100 years ago. I found a large snakeskin and also a busy rock crack full of bees. It was a fun little hike, a good excuse to eat beef jerky and drink poweraid. I'm not real sure of the identity of the hawk. The best views I had were when she was floating on the currents about 150 feet above me or a few seconds later when she'd fold her wings and zip past me at 40 mph. I didn't take my camera this trip but if there is a birder in the bunch, you know where to find one raptor. Let me know if you need more exact directions and please, check her out from afar. I'd hate to see her abandon her nest.