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Monday, June 3, 2013

All Along the Rim Trail

Young Mule Deer doe
The Rim Trail runs for 31 miles along the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains in southern New Mexico 4,000 feet above the Tularosa Basin; the trail passes through stands of Quaking Aspens, Pines and Fir, and can be accessed at many points along the road leading from Cloudcroft to the Sunspot Solar Observatory.  A hike along any section of the trail offers the possibility of spotting some of the resident wildlife.  For desert dwellers, the high-altitude trail provides a cool respite from  blast-furnace temperatures below.
Eating grass

Turning tail

 
Accosted by a Wild Turkey protecting her chicks

Chasing her chicks away

Ponderosa Pine

A look off the rim

Looking down from 9,000 feet

The Tularosa Basin and White Sands National Monument in the distance

Mama Bear and three cubs

Mama's got some weight on her

9 comments:

Jenny-B said...

I hope you weren't too close to that mama bear with her adorable cubs. Great pics, as usual.

packrat said...

Thanks, Jennifer. I appreciate you looking in.

:)

Dr. K said...

I wouldn't want to encounter that Mama Bear and her cubs on the trail.

Tonia said...

I sure hope that shot was taken with a long-distance lens, Rob!

packrat said...

10X zoom, Tonia. We weren't close enough to ever feel threatened.

:)

JACQUELINE said...

Beautiful. That turkey's beak looks sharp. We have brush turkeys in our backyard, but they're timid. No bears though - just the occasional snake.

packrat said...

Jacqueline:

Thanks for dropping by and commenting. An "occasional snake" in the backyard is one too many.

:)

Scott said...

Wow! What a great collection of images. Have you been hording them and just now posting them, or did you actually see all this wildlife along the trail in one walk? It's like walking through a wild animal park!

Our hen turkeys never act like the hen you showed in your image; she looks like the dinosaur knockoff that she is!

packrat said...

No hoarding involved, Scott; we encountered all these during one hike. That was the most aggressive hen we've ever encountered, though Becca seemed pretty unperturbed by her.

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