After seven years of tromping about the Mojave Desert in all different seasons, this past March had a Mojave Desert first for me- the sighting of a desert tortoise. Sure, I stopped in at Red Rock Canyon State Park to see their captive tortoise on an annual basis and know his favorite foods are lettuce and strawberries, but seeing a real life tortoise on the 5% of their life spent above ground was a real treat.
This little guy/gal was on a rocky mining road about 200 feet above a sandy alluvial fan with creosote, cholla, barrel cacti and Joshua Trees. From the little I knew of desert tortoises, I did not expect a tortoise up on this rocky hillside since they couldn’t dig a burrow easily here. I guess with only a few days a year to eat, tortoises must roam quite a bit. After years of hiking and seeing no tortoises, I wasn’t keeping an eye out for them so this was an amazing way to end a weekend in the Mojave Preserve. We’d met up with friends from USC for the weekend, but everyone had left to go home by noon on Sunday so Kelsey and I shared this Mojave first together.
