Post-Rain Trek

Patch of Purple Prickly Pear

Our local meteorologists said no rain today, but all during the extended hike Becca and I took this morning it looked as if the precipitation could start at any moment.  Fortunately we didn't even get sprinkled on.  We encountered several runners closer in to the mountain when we were finishing up, but we saw nobody in the distant outback far west of Tortugas.  Everything was pretty wet in the desert, and it was obvious we got some much-needed rain.  The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum recorded .82" of precipitation; that might not seem a lot to residents of rainier locations, but it's quite a decent amount for desert dwellers.

In the wet high foothills

Clouds over the Organ Mountains

West of Tortugas

Cloudy day in the Chihuahuan Desert

Where are the Organ Mountains?

In the wet sand

Looks like a mesa, but it's clouds over the Organs

Seems it could rain at any minute

Cactus Wren, rear view

A bit more of a profile

Yucca on the other side

Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) ruffled by wind

Another lone Torrey Yucca

Organ Mountains transplant?

Wet, sandy arroyo west of Tortugas

Light through the low clouds

What's with the lone yuccas?

Clouds all around

A more expansive look at the Doña Ana Mountains

On the mountain's western slope

Part of Las Cruces and the distant Robledo Mountains

Not Vesuvius

Small Fishhook Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni)