Great trip report, Ski. Love the photos of the Ibex dunes area. Will have to add that and Saratoga Spgs. to the 'bucket list'. We like photographing birds too.
I was amazed to see photos of you folks hiking in shorts! We went out on Wednesday, after losing power for four days (ultimately eight days no power), in arctic conditions. It was 10F at Benton, north of DV on Wednesday night. The temps must have dropped about forty degrees from monday to wednesday. Also Benton is 5,000' elevation, so that accounts for about 15 degrees of chill, compared to DV (assuming sea level).