Furry Critters at the Conservation Area

Sandy was told that he would see all sorts of animals at the conservation area. There certainly were lots of flying animals but other than one deer (way off in the distance) he kept looking and looking and not seeing much.

Mind you... who can see much with all of that tall grass. What Sandy needs is a lookout spot! And... it just so happens that there is one spot called Sandy's Lookout! (not kidding)...

Sandy had a great view of the mountains but... no animals... So he went back to looking for flowers instead.

This one looks very pretty and is called Cow Parsnip - so it is named after a furry animal! It even had a slightly bedraggled butterfly sitting on it.

The antenna on this butterfly are kind of furry... so maybe that counts as a furry animal?? There was also a butterfly convention happening on an alfalfa flower.

At a cross-roads, Sandy found some evidence of furry animals - two antlers bolted with a chain to a post in the ground. Maybe it's called Antler Crossing??

And then finally... a furry animal!!! A very cute little striped and speckled ground squirrel.

It is apparently called a Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel (who comes up with these names)... and was very pretty! So Sandy ended his hike with at least one live furry creature sighting... although it was only when he got back to the parking lot that he was glad he didn't see another type of furry creature!!

Luckily Mama had seen it earlier - so we traveled in a group of four (plus one bear) and even had bear spray along (which probably works well on cougars too). And the only cougar we saw was on an interpretive sign!