Location, Location, Location

Orange Sulfur on Hairy False Goldenaster

Dr. K, Becca and I had our hiking plans altered several times this morning, first by a lunatic in a red pickup truck on the far side of Tortugas Mountain who was drunkenly making doughnuts with his truck in the parking lot, kicking up a cloud of gravel and dust, and, thereby, preventing us from pulling in.  So we drove up to the Sierra Vista Trail parking lot and started down the Sierra Norte Trail which leads past Soledad Rocks and into the lower desert.  The problem we ran into there was an organized run that kept forcing us to stand at the side of the trail while runners went past us in both directions.  We aborted that hike and went back to the parking lot, choosing to do a relatively-long trek on the Sierra Vista Trail heading south.  This time we only encountered one runner and two mountain bikers, so we ended up having an enjoyable hike after all.

Honeybee on Hairy False Goldenaster

View from the head of the Sierra Norte Trail

On the Sierra Vista Trail

Looking back at the Soledad Rocks and the Organ Mountains

Happy to be hiking on a Sunday morning

Large stand of Apache Plume on an arroyo bank

Small Barrel Cactus

Barrel Cactus fruit

Dr. K and Becca heading south

Waiting for the pokey photographer

High desert grassland just west of the Organs

Happy flora in a mountain arroyo

Trail slashing southward

Trekking in a high-desert grassland

Don't know what these beautiful tiny flowers are

These tiny ball flowers are the size of large ball bearings

Stamens/pistils ?

Prickly Pear planter

Painted Lady?

I'm going with "Painted Lady"

Organ Mountains

Almost back to the parking lot

Soledad Rocks and the Organ Mountains