My favourite insect is the hoverfly.
They can be found at altitude on trails most everywhere around the world.
… About 6,000 species in 200 genera have been described. Hoverflies are common throughout the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Hoverflies are harmless to most other animals despite their mimicry of the black and yellow stripes of wasps, which serves to ward off predators. …
Henry knows they are harmless. A great challenge is to try to get one to land on your nose. They like to lick up the salt in your sweat.
UPDATE: Turns out Kolby Kirk is a hover fly guy. Here’s one of his brilliant photos, this one from Joshua Tree.
besthike.com 
Nice to see somebody saying good things about bugs. We usually remember the ornery types and treat them all the same way. I spotted a huge wasp on a fallen log one cold morning on a hike out west and was going to just walk past, wouldn’t have thought about anything but not getting stuck. My hiking buddy stopped and coaxed this giant poisonous bug onto his finger, warmed it up with body heat, and left it on a sunny tree branch. It seemed very grateful. Always good to be reminded that the world can be friendly.
I’m a big BIG fan of hover flies! I hope to someday publish a book of just hover fly photographs. Before I got serious into hiking, I was serious into insect photography. I’d spend hours at my local arboretum trying to capture photos of hover flies.
Here’s my favorite (from Joshua Tree) – http://www.bugshutterbug.com/webroot/albums/jt01/index.html
Excellent. I updated the original post with a link to your pic.
Awesome blog!
I started my own hiking blog over at http://www.ultimatehikingguide.blogspot.com
I think you’ll like it!
Thanks Scott. I’ve subscribed.