Bucking the Odds

Young Mule Deer buck on the west side of Tortugas Mountain

As soon as we got to the arroyo where the trail branches into two on the west side of Tortugas Mountain this morning Becca was on alert.  She stared intensely at the far ridge, but it wasn't until something moved that I saw what had captured her attention:  a Mule Deer that soon headed south up the gully.  We didn't spot it again until we had climbed to the highest point along the eastern bank.  The critter had started up the western side of the mountain, a young buck who stopped to watch us while I took photos of him.  Certain we couldn't or wouldn't follow up the steep grade he ambled away at a slow, but steady pace.

Same Mule Deer buck (Odocoileus hemionus)

Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra)

New single-track (left) and badly rutted old single-track

Swirly clouds

Young Devil's Head (left) and old Rainbow Hedgehog Cactus

Rainbow Hedgehog Cactus (foreground) and young Devil's Head

Becca scouting the route ahead

The bright spot (center) is not the sun, but a cloud highlighted by the sun

Organ Mountains through an Ocotillo

On the road around Tortugas

Two identical images, one in color and . . .

. . . the other in black-and-white