We have been here at Alamo Lake State Park, AZ since December 26th.  The weather has been quite chilly (for AZ!) with daytime highs in the 50s to low 60s and some overnight lows into the 30s.  Most of our days here have been partly cloudy with wind under 10.

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View out our back window

Alamo Lake State Park is way out in the middle of the AZ outback...internet connection here is very poor, even with our WEBOOST. But using it we went from nothing to being able to stream Netflix!

WEBOOST Antenna

There are some fearsome bugs here...The Tarantula Hawk Wasp...a spider wasp  that preys on tarantula spiders. They are one of the largest parasitic wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living prey.

Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes. One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream".  This one is a big female (I read you can tell by the curled antenna, I wasn't going to pick it up and check!)..nearly 2 inches long.  Only the females can sting...but why mess with them and take a chance?!?!?

The Palo Verde tree next to our campsite was attractive to them for some reason.  Counted 9 on it at one time.  They didn't bother us but it's still un-nerving when they fly close by you on their way to look for a spider!

The peak in the photo below is Artillery Peak.  The whole area in the photo is the weathered remains of an ancient shield volcano.  The peak is what's left of the original lava conduit.  The contours of the original volcano are marked by the red lines.  Over the eons erosion by wind and rain has reduced it to what we see today.  The peak is the solidified "plug" of the lava conduit....Click the photo... 

The area around artillery peak has vast resources of manganese, one of the largest deposits in the country.  Also found in this area are good deposits of uranium and also some gold.

Tomorrow we will be shooting some Drone videos....Watch for them soon!