News.bytes Extra, issue 537

Sand in Your Shoes

Summer Family Night with the BLM

"Sand in your shoes," a BLM tradition, was just part of the experience at Dune Discovery this month, in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. Temperatures of 100-plus degrees on June 12 did not keep families inside. Instead, they came out in large numbers to explore the desert life that emerges on sand dunes at dusk. BLM volunteers from the Youth Initiative Incentive program set up a learning station for families, before guiding them out to the dune system near Palm Springs. Topics covered at the learning station included dune formation, threatened and rare species such as the Coachella Valley Fringe Toed Lizard and Milk Vetch, venomous animals and tracking animals. Visitors were offered wet bandanas and water refills before venturing out to see animal tracks and to look for wildlife on the way to the dunes.

This free program will be offered again on July 10  from 6-8 pm. For more information contact the Visitor Center of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument at 760/862-9984. 

A  group guided by Josie Cardona stops to carefully observe a horned lizard.

Youth Crew, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument

Kash Johnson shows a photo of a Gambel’s Quail before starting out on a tour.

Curtis Azevedo, BLM recreation studies intern from Chico, CA uses soil sieves to demonstrate  soils from the desert wash and dune environments.

- Tracy Albrecht, Interpretive Specialist, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument/BLM Palm Springs South Coast Field Office. Photos by Tracy Albrecht. (June 2012)

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