Palomar Mountain Mountain Lion!

[Ryan Thomas]

I went up to Palomar Mountain last night for some Milky Way pictures since it was the new moon. Turns out my favorite picture I took all night was a grainy, poorly focused cellphone shot of the freaking *mountain lion* that I came across!

I was very uncomfortably close to it while not in my vehicle - it had pretty much just walked up behind me in the parking lot to "check me out" - aka "seeing if edible" lol. I got a very, very good look at it in the lot while telling it very loudly to "Get the hell away from me, I'm not food!" then hopped in my car to try and get a pic. My real camera was, unfortunately, still on the tripod - so all I got was this grainy shot of its backside (The other car is my friend who was up there taking pics also)

Fun night!!!

 

[StG58]

Well, hello kitty! They will see you ten times for every one you see. Love big cats...

 

[Chris]

Damn, how cool! I haven't seen one here in Oregon, but they're around!

I love big cats!

 

[Ryan Thomas]

Well, hello kitty! They will see you ten times for every one you see. Love big cats...

Exactly!
I spent a lot of time hunting in the mountains with my dad, and I have a serious trust issue when it comes to mountain lions!
Bears, not so much - they scare me far less. But, mountain lions are waaaay too sneaky!

 

[Chris]

I like to look at them in the zoo, but no way I want to come face-to-face with one... That's for sure.

 

[Ryan Thomas]

Damn, how cool! I haven't seen one here in Oregon, but they're around!

I love big cats!

I don't get to see them very frequently at all, but Palomar Mountain is absolutely prime territory for them.
I do, however, see a *bunch* of bobcats up there almost every time I go.

 

[Ryan Thomas]

I like to look at them in the zoo, but no way I want to come face-to-face with one... That's for sure.

Yeah, that crap is scary

 

[Chris]

I remember when I lived in Arizona. Sometimes you would see the mountain lions sneaking into people's backyards to cool off in the pool.

 

[Ryan Thomas]

Finally got around to going through the pictures I actually went up the mountain to take.
This one is one of my favorites - you can see two meteors and a satellite along with the Milky Way. I just wish Palomar Mountain had a little less light pollution.

https://flic.kr/p/KqUsss

 

[Chris]

Wow, gorgeous photo!

I wish that we didn't live somewhere with as much light pollution as we do. I remember driving through Texas at night in the middle of nowhere. You could see the stars so well. Haven't had that experience in a long time.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Beeyoutiful pics Ryan, nice!

I've never seen a mountain lion in the wild (and have been up Palomar Mtn many times over the years) but I've seen some Bobcats. I found one perched on top of my car many years ago when I was out visiting Calico with a bunch of college buddies. He didn't want to move so we left him alone until he decided to move on his own lol.

 

[Ryan Thomas]

Thanks! I really like taking Milky Way pics.
Luckily, the Perseid meteor shower is this next week (Peaks the 11th and 12th), so maybe I'll get some good pics then.
I'm thinking of setting up in the Mojave, at one of the official "Dark Sky" spots. It makes a huuuge difference!

 

[Chris]

I like those Milky Way pics. It's pretty amazing to sit there, look at those photos, and think about how tremendously large the universe is, and how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.