A Good Bushwhack

West side of Tortugas in shadow and light

Becca and I had a slightly later start this morning because just at 6:13 a.m. I was signing in at the Memorial Medical Center lab to have blood drawn for some routine tests for a doctor's appointment next week.  I got back home around 6:50, so that set us behind schedule a bit.  Nevertheless, when we did finally get out to the west side of Tortugas Mountain we decided (more my decision than hers, really) to do some bushwhacking to see what we could find, and that extended our trek noticeably.  One interesting discovery we made was of a massive, dense stand of Soaptree Yuccas that we'd never seen before.  I counted seventeen separate crowns on the magnificent behemoth.  While we saw other hikers in the distance upon our return we had no direct encounters with anybody.  As you know by now, that's the way Becca and I like it. 

Large arroyo

More of the west side of Tortugas Mountain

Lone yucca on the ridge

One trail up the west side

Bushwhacking across the ridge line

Desert flora/desert sky

Cactus Wren on a yucca

Somebody took the trouble to fashion a cross out of a Soaptree Yucca stalk

Closer look at the cross

Dense stand of Soaptree Yuccas

Becca and the Soaptree Yucca stand

Picacho Peak and environs

A distant notch

West of Tortugas Mountain

Backlit yucca #1

Backlit yucca #2

Headed down a steep dirt road

Further down the same road

A hare in hand is better than one in the bush

North flank of Tortugas and the Organ Mountains