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| Tortugas Mountain from the foothills of the Organ Mountains |
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| Heading south on the Sierra Vista Trail |
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| The magnificent Organ Mountains, Sotol in the foreground |
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| The rugged canyons |
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| One happy hiker |
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| Equestrians are allowed on this trail |
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| If you're going there you'd better be prepared |
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| Another view of Tortugas (Tortoise) Mountain |
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| Paper Flowers still blooming |
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| Desert Zinnia still in bloom |
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| Looking back after hiking several miles |
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| Becca and cairn (trail marker) |
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| Packrat beside a large Little-Leaf Sumac |
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| What's Becca staring at? |
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| She's staring at Torrey Yuccas, which look like people on the horizon |
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| A rock trail marker on the Sierra Vista |
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| A type of Plagiobothrys (Popcorn Flower)? |
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| Turpentine Bush |
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| What a place to live, huh? |
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| Barrel Cactus with a crop of fruit |
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| Because of Scott I had to sample Barrel Cactus fruit |
4 comments:
You're more adventurous than I am! But maybe next time I'm there....
I'm glad I survived tasting the fruit from the barrel cactus.
Packrat: Your image of the Organ Mountains, the blue sky with clouds, and the Sotol in the foreground was one of the best images you've ever shared with us. Bravo!
Were you hesitant to try the cactus fruit? Often, when I'm leading a walk as a naturalist and I suggest to participants that they sample something I know to be edible, the participants will wrinkle up their noses and politely demure. Of course, I've got to prove my own knowledge and will nibble away while the group grimaces. People are so removed from the natural world.
Thanks so much for the kind compliment on the image, Scott.
My only hesitance in tasting the cactus fruit stemmed from what I'd read the day before: that the center section is like okra, a vegetable I detest. I solved that problem by not eating the seeds in the center. As you probably know you cannot simply pick a fruit from the Prickly Pear and eat it because of dangerous spines. I have actually scraped all of the spines from a Prickly Pear, shaved off the skin and sampled the fruit--which is better than the Barrel Cactus fruit. I've also had Prickly Pear jelly, which is good primarily because it's been sweetened.
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