West Side of the Mountain

"Picacho" Peak

Often on Sundays--when we're doing a local hike--we'll drive to the far side of Tortugas Mountain, the side referred to as "Monte Vista."  But when I checked out the weather this morning and saw it would be sunny and hot I decided that we should do our trek on the near side--the Sunset Area side--of the mountain, so as to stay in shadow for as much of the hike as possible. That's what we did, but it made it doubly difficult when we had to move out of cooling shade into searing sunlight.  To compensate for the uncomfortable conditions we did only a moderately-long hike rather than a long one.  When we returned to the parking area we were surprised to find a full parking lot.  Apparently some people don't mind starting off in blazing sunshine.

Clinging to the shadow

I don't want to go into the sun

Somebody's up on the mountain road

An alert Jackrabbit

Nessie of the desert

Becca spots mountain bikers

Looking back at Tortugas (and the observatory on top)

This seems like a good place for a shade break

Not bad

I can still be a lookout

Becca-eye view