Around here, when the "locals" (do I qualify yet?) say "The Monument", they are referring to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. That is where Roxy and I spent the morning, taking a ride down the very bumpy Cottonwood Road, where our quest was to see if we could find a few wildflowers. This one remains unidentified and hopefully I'll be able to corner someone who knows this stuff. So far I haven't found much in the way of resources for the monument's flora. Whatever it is, there was no shortage of them along the first part of our route. They seemed to be just about the most numerous flowers for a pretty long stretch.

I'd heard about this flower being in bloom and it was one of my targets to look for on this trip. Sego Lillies (Calochortus nuttallii) can be found throughout the west - primarily in forests, so I was a little surprised when someone told me last week that they were in bloom down in the monument. The bulbs are edible and were used by many indigenous peoples - as well as Mormon settlers in Utah (it is also the state flower). Should be some blooming up here on the plateau over the next few weeks.

Cacti in bloom was another part of the quest. I need to find a botany expert who knows something about when these flowers open up. Almost everything I saw initially was closed or, at least, seemed to be closing, making me think that I'd arrived too late in the morning, but these - Engelmann's Hedgehog (Echinocereus engelmannii) - were relatively abundant and seemed to be opening up more as I was on the return trip. There were also a few Prickly Pear with yellow flowers that I hadn't even noticed on the way down. Guess I'll have to find about cactus flower timing for future reference . . .

I was also hoping to find some "herps" along the way and this Great Basin Collared Lizard turned out to be very cooperative. I also saw a huge (20-25 cm./8-10 in.) Western Fence Lizard and a Nightsnake.

I hadn't gone with the intention of doing any birding, but still managed to add to my state list with 4 species: Northern Mockingbird, Bewick's Wren, Black-throated Sparrow, and Bullock's Oriole.