Quirky Little Museums, Offbeat Destinations, and Sights Less Seen

[unapologetic]

What he found was amazing.

WTF
That site gives you the 'option' to opt-out of cookies. But to do so you need to click a button "save my preferences".
Fuck that, save NOTHING.

 

[ZiprHead]

What he found was amazing.

WTF
That site gives you the 'option' to opt-out of cookies. But to do so you need to click a button "save my preferences".
Fuck that, save NOTHING.

I didn't get that.

 

[Arctish]

Ever wondered what it would be like to wander around a desert oasis among rare plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world? Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is just the place for it.

The Refuge is about 90 miles west of Las Vegas on the way to Death Valley. It was almost lost to developers before being bought up by conservationists in the 1980s and then donated to the government to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The star attractions are the pupfish, very small but active little fish that live in the isolated springs. The Amargosa pupfish can be seen from the boardwalk behind the Ash Meadows visitor center in the pools and steam among the mesquite. The critically endangered Devil's Hole pupfish are in a tiny pool of water deeper in the Refuge. They are harder to see because their little pool is at the bottom of a high sided natural well and visitors aren't allowed to get too close, but with binoculars you can see them feeding on the single shelf of rock that gets enough sunlight for algae to grow.

You can also see tumbleweeds growing all over the place. CGP Grey made a very entertaining video about that pestiferous plant and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's so-far futile war against it: