Rain Delay

The sky at start

It rained quite a bit late last night, and then Becca woke me about 2 a.m. because it was raining heavily and some rainwater was coming in the partially-opened patio doors.  When we got up this morning it was still raining so Becca and I started late on our morning hike; we were delayed about an hour and twenty minutes.  When we finally did get going--about 8:20--the sky was completely cloudy and there was a nice, cooling breeze.  Midway through our trek, though, the sun began to make sporadic appearances, and by the time we were almost finished with our outing we both were getting steamed by merciless sunlight in outrageously high humidity.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Organ Mountains are out there somewhere

Heading toward the lower desert

Whitethorn Acacia and cloudy sky

Some blue to the northeast

Just after the rain

Mountain biking through wet sand

A saturated Chihuahuan Desert

Wet and green

Starting to see the mountains a bit more

Up the long, wet, sandy road

A few miles west of Tortugas

The Gap (not the clothing store)

Clouds lifting over the Organ Mountains

Flank of Tortugas, Organ Mountains visible behind

Franklin Mountains near El Paso

Loggerhead Shrike

Same Loggerhead Shrike

Doña Ana Mountains

Becca heading through a green desert

Still cloudy to the south

Bit of blue above the Organs

Almost completely yellow Ocotillo

Headed down a slope toward the arroyo

Rainwater flowed through here last night

Amazing how green the desert is

Clouds draped over the Organ Mountains

Looking north across a big puddle

Looking south over the same puddle

Here we go with the Barrel Cactus buds yet again

These are some of the biggest unopened buds I've seen so far

Closer look

Barrel Cacti ready to blossom

Climbing Milkweed and fly butt

Another arroyo closer in to Tortugas Mountain

Can't get over the color of these buds

Checking them out from another angle

Look what rushing rainwater did to this road