By Patric Hedlund, TME

Have you seen one yourself, soaring wild across the sky?

It appears silently, suddenly, soaring effortlessly across towering thermals without flapping its wings, slipping through a majestic rip in time to bypass the conscious mind, sweeping your heart with it into the Pleistocene era.

On the wings of the giant California condor, the sweeping unity of mountain ridges, valleys and open sky snap Google Earth into the fourth dimension—into the reality of flying these thermals over these mountains for hundreds of thousands of years.

The largest flying bird in North America thrived when the giant sloth, the rhinoceros, the saber tooth tiger and mastodon walked this land. Condor dined on the carrion of those big beasts. But for millennia now, fallen elk, antelope and deer have been its main food. Gymnogyps californianus may have the face of a dinosaur, but this endangered species does not…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

To see full stories with photos, please purchase a copy of the newspaper at many locations (click this link for a list) throughout the Mountain Communities.

Or, have your newspaper delivered via mail and include internet access. Just call 661-245-3794. Classified ads are FREE to paid subscribers! See front page at www.mountainenterprise.com for details.

The e-Edition is available now with full photos and stories at The Mountain Enterprise e-Edition. Select the 2019-0802 edition.

(subscriber login required)

This is part of the August 2, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.