El California Condor Pasa

We went on a condor hunt Saturday with the Sardoni's. Ken and Laurie brought their jeep, and we went 4-wheeling at a property owned by our friend Brian, who promised us the opportunity to see some California condors!

His property was about an hour straight up the mountains outside Cedar City. It took some amazing map skills to actually find it, but we rewarded with the condor shed run by the Peregrine Fund. They test the health of the birds by setting out bait and and trapping the birds to later release them after their check-ups. Today they had a couple of birds outside the shed and two inside.

As we got closer the two free birds soared into the distance, but we got a close-up look at P7 and P5. They were beautiful! We also enjoyed watching the other birds flying above us!

We took a hike looking for a canyon where the condors nested. passing through a stand of aspens with trunks so thick I couldn't wrap my arms around them!

When we came to a big open meadow we knew we were on the right track, and kept on going!

We passed through some pine trees tall enough to be the national Christmas tree!

Finally, we found a beautiful, solitary canyon, where we just sat and enjoyed the scenery. We could see a couple of condors circling in the distance. It was an amazing experience!

We felt successful on so many levels. We found the ranch, we found the cage, we found the canyon, and we saw the condors in the wild. And to boot, we caught a little air with the jeep while off-roading!

Afterwards, we came down from the mountain and drove by the soon to be dedicated  Cedar City temple. It has a nice prominent location on a hill west of the freeway!

If that wasn't enough, we also played pickelball, learned two Jewish folk songs, and went for a dip in the Sardoni's swimming pool!

It was a great day, and a nice warm up for the Israel trip we have signed up for along with the Sardoni's in March!