Storms

New Mexico Thistle and pal

Last night we had a hellacious lightning-and-thunder storm from 10 p.m. until half past midnight.  Amazingly it deposited only .07" of rain.  The forecast for today in the high country near Cloudcroft was for thunderstorms to begin at around 1 p.m.  The prediction was off by two hours.  Dr. K, Becca and I started our hike on Section 2 of the Rim Trail at 8:25, and we finished at exactly 11:00--when the big storm hit.  We made it into the car before getting wet, but back in the village, when I jumped out to jettison a bag of garbage in a dumpster near the fire station, I got soaked in less than one minute.  Nevertheless, we had a wonderful hike along the Rim Trail, the only minor aggravation coming from a head-on encounter with seven dirt bikers out for a morning ride.  They were friendly, perfectly courteous, and one even apologized for forcing us to step to the side of the trail.  They have every right to be there, but I must say that the noise produced by their internal-combustion engines was enough to give even Job a case of agita.

Geranium

Geyer's Onion

Heading through the pines

12,000' Sierra Blanca in the Sacramento Mountains

Flower/bee

Narrow going

Look at the size of this pine

Fungus growing in a pine tree stump

Heading through a meadow on the Rim Trail

Cutleaf Coneflowers

Cutleaf Coneflowers

Forging ahead

Helianthus

Mexican Silene

This is the altitude when we "bottomed out" this morning

Northwestern Fritillary on Cutleaf Coneflower

Sunny disposition

Big clouds starting to build

A real overcast

Really darkening up

Logjam

Looking at White Sands while heading back on the Rim Trail

Altitude where the car is parked

View of a real thunder bumper from our High Rolls home