Sunday Services, OMDPNM

Getting started on the Sierra Vista Trail (Norte)

There were five different groups of campers--four in tents and one in an RV--when Becca and I got out to Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument early this morning.  Several people were out drinking breakfast coffee, and we waved to each other as I drove by.  Our pal Jimmy told me last week that BLM workers had finished running cables between the poles they had erected alongside the entrance road and that they had graveled the road surface nicely.  Indeed they had; no trouble at all getting Whitey the CR-V down to the trailhead parking lot.  It was much cooler this morning, with a semi-stiff wind, so the Beckster and I went much further than I had planned.  Neither one of us got hot, so it was a pleasantly long trek in the beautiful national monument; and, as always, there were plenty of good things to photograph.  Three different vehicles with mountain bikers had just pulled in when we got back to the lot, and one of the guys--a friendly type--said, "How was it?"  I said, "Great."  And, indeed, it was.

Many Barrel Cacti in these parts

Early morning look at the Organs

Are you having a good time?

Yes

Tripartite Barrel

Getting your Barrels in a row

From the other side

Nearly ground-level shot

The happy hiker

Closing in on the mountains

The rugged Organs

Not quite a yardstick in height

Getting close to the turnaround point

The Chihuahuan Desert is a high desert (up to 5500 feet in elevation)

Becca bushwhacking

This Barrel is about 4 feet tall

From a slightly different perspective

That signpost (bottom center) is our far point for today

Ever closer to the rugged Organs

Fruit of the Tasajillo Cholla (Cylindropuntia leptocaulis)

This and the rest:  shots of the Organs on our way out