High Wind Watch

What the Organs looked like at the start of our trek

Becca and I left fairly early for our Saturday hike on the far side of Tortugas Mountain, and we noticed, while driving past the Sunset Area, that it was pretty crowded with vehicles already.  Conversely, only one vehicle occupied the parking lot at the Monte Vista side.  We had a close encounter of the second kind with two runners back behind the mountain, and after we had looped around and were headed back we had to step aside to let a woman mountain biker pass, who said of Becca as she drove by, "What a good dog."  After that we saw a man and a woman with two dogs on leads standing stationary on the upper loop trail as we crossed past them on a lower branch; they just stared at us, never even waving a greeting.  I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing, but they might have intended to hike down the way we were coming up and were waiting for us to pass.  Still, it seemed odd for them not to acknowledge our presence.

Thin clouds over Tortugas Mountain

Banana Yucca and Torrey Yucca

Blanket of clouds over the Organs

Closer look at those clouds

Clouds over Tortugas

House-size outcrops

Boulders/clouds

Two huge boulders

Distant shot of clouds over the Organs

Becca behind the mountain

We've hiked that trail to the top before

Yuccas on the plateau

Above scene in B&W

Organ Mountains with clouds

This and the next 2:  cloudy Organs

Boulders at the base of Tortugas

Cloudy Organ Mountains