I’ve often called it the “cruel mountain.” It’s got a few stiff inclines and it’s fairly depressing to have a 3year old lap you….a couple of times. Also, that asphalt is a lot more slippery than it looks. Still, the scenery is lovely and so it makes for a challenging yet beautiful walk.

There is a mountain tower at the top and I suspect the people of the “hood” took it over as a exercise destination. The owners of the mountain don’t seem to mind.

I am amazed at the wildlife we’ve seen there. This mountain is just across the road from our house, but I only see the jackrabbits and rattlesnakes there. Trust me, I’m okay without having the rattlesnakes in my backyard and you know as soon as I typed that a female rattlesnake laid a clutch of eggs under our jungle gym and will raise her brood before I can say that ‘I’ve never seen a rattlesnake in my back yard’ again.

In addition to rattlers, we’ve seen these guys. I don’t know what they are, they’ve got just a touch of red. Maybe a king snake?

Here’s a glamor shot.

When we walk in the dark, I take a flashlight because I don’t want to step on anything. I saw a lizard someone else had stepped on, not pretty.
Here’s a scorpion.

This is actually a centipede. He was zipping around in my light circle about a million miles a second, I’m surprised I got at least one somewhat clear shot. I’ve never seen a centipede like this. It’s got all these long, crazy legs and I think I heard it ask me for another shot of espresso?

This whip scorpion was so small, I almost didn’t see it and I didn’t know what it was until I did a google image search. Incredible and creepy isn’t it? But what I didn’t notice until I took this image into my editor was the teeny tiny scorpion beside it! I suspect that we interrupted some sort of circle of life struggle here. Scary to think that we couldn’t see the little scorpion, makes me not want to stand still next time we walk the mountain in the dark.

One day we found th