There's something about spring that snaps us out of hibernation and makes us hungry to hit the road. Maybe we just want to be sure that other parts of the country have survived the winter as well as we have, or maybe all that new life simply makes us restless, but it's a good time to tour. Visit this page on Monday, April 12 to listen with RealAudio. Spring in the desert is elusive and unpredictable, not at all like more gentle climes where you can depend on tulips or cherry trees blooming at some particular time. Each year, Hal and I choose a particular plant we want to find in bloom, and we've gotten pretty good at gathering the information we need to get us to the right place at the right time.
Tortoises are so rare they are protected.
They can grow up to 15 inches in diameter, and can live to be 80 or 90 years old. In fact, they spend up to 95 percent of their lives underground, which is one reason why they are so hard to spot. But springtime, before the weather gets too hot, is a good time to look, if we only knew how to go about it. We haven't been able to find a tortoise hotline, so we decide to simply strike out on our own, driving across the Mojave from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. Our first stop is the Snow Canyon State Park, near St. George, Utah, a site suggested to us by a desert field-biologist.