More Cross-Desert Exploration

Movin' on down the road

A good morning of exploration today.  Becca and I saw a lot of neat stuff:  a Black-tailed Jackrabbit, a heavy metal cross (which we'd come across before), an engine manifold in a desolate area, a raven pestering a Red-tailed Hawk, our buddy, Jimmy, hiking up the west side of Tortugas, and an igneous rock that looks (on first appearance) to have captured an animal track.  I may have a geology expert take a look at the rock, but I suspect the track may be just an accident of natural formation. Does it look like an animal footprint to you?

Rugged terrain west of Tortugas Mountain

Always in the bushwhacking mood

Yuccas and Ocotillos

What's Becca staring at?

This

Black-tailed Jackrabbit (a true hare)

X marks the spot

A cross of heavy metal bars welded together

Out in the middle of nowhere we found . . .

a Dodge Chrysler Mopar 383 2BBL intake manifold (I googled the serial #)

A real impediment to bushwhacking:  Catclaw Acacia

Mesquite leafing out on an arroyo bank

When the flower is ready the hummingbird will come

A Raven harasses a Red-tailed Hawk

Fossilized animal track in Welded Tuff?

Our friend Jimmy halfway up the mountain's west face