Bathtime for Becca

Monte Vista side ramada at Tortugas Mountain

Dr. K and I decided to limit our morning hike to an hour or so on the far side of Tortugas Mountain in order to be cautious about Becca's leg strain.  We did just that, and she seemed to do well on the trek.  We saw a few people out there--including distant mountain bikers Becca spotted miles away--but we ran into nobody.  The Monte Vista parking lot was empty when we arrived this morning, and it was empty when we left.  One notable near encounter was with a young Mule Deer buck who was super anxious to be away from us.  When we got home we gave Becca a nice, cooling bath; she's a very good dog when it comes to getting washed.  We've had a few other dogs that absolutely hated getting wet.

Gathering of White-winged Doves

Departure time

Northeast of Tortugas Mountain

Certainly no Top Gun maneuver

Doves sunbathing

Further east of the mountain

Hiking along the road east of Tortugas

Parts of the mountain

The road we hiked to get here

An idea about how steep that northeast slope is

As far as we got east of Tortugas Mountain this morning

Way ahead of the pack

Becca's keeping her eye on something

Dr. K and Becca

Becca spots mountain bikers way across the desert (red arrows)

Quick look back at the way we just came

Zooming in on said mountain bikers

I think I like this one . . .

. . . better than this

Rounding the northeast flank again

We kick up a young Mule Deer buck

He sure was in a hurry to avoid us

Caught him in mid-bound

Disappearing into the desert foilage

I see a bird at the top of that Torrey Yucca at right

It's a Loggerhead Shrike