Four Women/Five Dogs

Just west of Tortugas Mountain very early on a Saturday morning

As I mentioned several times in recent posts the Tortugas Mountain Trails Recreation Area has been extremely popular of late, especially the Sunset side.  In all the years we've been hiking here it's never been this crowded.  This morning was no exception.  Almost as soon as we started off we encountered four women hiking with five dogs.  Three of the canines were off lead, including George, who was very inquisitive.  It was a particularly non-eventful meeting:  no growling or snarling, though the women looked kind of snarky.  Just kidding!  One apologized for the temporary Grand-Central-Station logjam on the trail, but I said it was no problem.  When we got back to the trailhead about ninety minutes later the parking lot was completely full and there were cars lined up along the entrance road on both sides.

Tooling along the high foothills trail

A worried dove

Doesn't that hurt your neck?

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) in an Ocotillo

Roadrunner

A little grooming

Checking the surroundings before flying down

Becca on break

Look, there in the sky:  it's a bird, it's a plane . . .

A mile or so west of Tortugas Mountain

A bouquet of Woolly Paperflowers

Sand Palafoxia (Palafoxia sphacelata)

Sand Palafoxia

Clouding up

Mountain biker on the right had a flat tire

Barrel Cactus flowers and buds

Yellow flowers and cloudy sky