Smoke and Triple Digits

A really early start

In addition to having to suffer the triple-digit heatwave that's gripping us beginning today we have to deal with smoke being funneled down from the north.  The smell of smoke was unmistakable this morning when Becca and I hit the trail west of Tortugas Mountain; and because a stiff wind was blowing down from the north I assumed we were already getting smoke from the Dog Head Fire in the Manzano Mountains southeast of Albuquerque.  The last I heard the fire had erupted into a conflagration that has already consumed 16,000 acres.

Which way do we go?

This way to the high foothills

Flycatcher

Through the gully then higher still

Heading for lower desert

Descending the single-track

Up to the western mesa

Looking back at a hazy Tortugas Mountain

Smoke at the base of the Organ Mountains

An idea of how smoky it is

Ocotillos and the Organs

In the sand west of Tortugas

In the northern Chihuahuan Desert with Hiker Dawg

White-thorn Acacia

White-thorn Acacia (obviously a legume)

How smoky it's become toward the end of our trek

Compare this to yesterday's similar image

Relaxing under the trellis in our front yard