Desert Photo Scavenger Hunt Hike

Project 365 – #103

Since the temps are supposed to be on the rise this week, Munchkin and I decided that we’d head over to the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday.  D had hoped that he would be able to go with us, but his work schedule didn’t allow him to get away.  As we were getting things ready to leave, Munchkin asked if she could see if her friend could go with us.  I told her that it was fine to ask, so Munchkin ran next door to find out if she could join us on our adventure.  She was rather excited when her friend said yes.

The previous night, I had put together a desert photo scavenger hunt (click link to download for free) for our hike on the Painted Desert Trail.  Using a business card template, I made a card for various items that I wanted Munchkin to find and photograph during our hike.  I wanted the hike to be fun and interactive.  (Yes, looking at the beauty of nature is wonderful, but making it interactive captures her attention just a little more.)  I also created cards for desert facts.  The plan was to have her write down facts that she found at the visitor center.  Once I had these made up, I printed them on card stock and cut them out.  I punched a hole in the cards, so I could place them all on a ring.  The ring was attached to a carabiner clip for easy removal/attachment to a belt loop or pack.

Our first stop upon arrival at the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge was the visitors center.  They had a nice variety of hands-on activities and displays for the girls to check out.  Since they were both hungry, we didn’t stay very long.  We decided that we would head back over after our hike.

We stopped by the picnic area for a quick bite to eat.  The mosquitoes were extremely bad, so we didn’t stay for very long.  The girls finished eating in the truck while I drove over to the trailhead.  They were pretty excited to get started on the hike and scavenger hunt.  Because I didn’t realize that there would be two kids participating in the scavenger hunt, I only had one set of cards.  Thankfully, the girls had no problem sharing.

The Painted Desert Trail is about a mile or so loop which normally doesn’t take very long to hike.  When you add a photo scavenger hunt, you automatically add more time.  If you have two young ladies having a great time on the scavenger hunt, well, you need to add in even more time.  Thankfully, there were benches and shady spots along the trail for brief periods of rest.  One of the locations along the trail featured this nice hoodoo specimen which the girls really liked.  They had fun taking quite a few pictures of it and each other.

Up and down the trail went.  The girls snapped pictures, laughed, talked, and looked for wildlife.  The wild burrow trails criss-crossed the desert terrain.  Beautiful colors and textures surrounded us.  Occasionally in the distance, we were able to catch a glimpse of the Colorado River.  We saw signs (scat) that the desert big horn sheep had been in the area, but a glimpse of them was not to be had.  Lizards, lots of lizards, scurried about all around us.

Upon arrival back at the truck, we all enjoyed a nice blast of cool air when the air conditioning kicked on.  We made our way back over to the visitors center.  We started to hike the trail by the visitors center that takes you back over to the picnic area, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we decided to turn back about half way through the trail.  The girls continued taking pictures of nature plus they added in some pictures of their American Girl puppies in the nature surroundings.  They spent some more time looking around and taking pictures at the visitors center before we hopped in the truck and made our way back home.

We had a great field trip, and the desert photo scavenger hunt hike was a big hit.  I want to do more of these outings, but plans may need to be put on hold until after the summer.  We’ll keep an eye on the weather as there may be a few more impromptu field trips in the near future if we have some cooler days.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.