Friday's Fun Trek

This and the next:  Blackfoot Daisy

Becca and I got a fairly early start on our morning trek west of Tortugas Mountain, and we did a little unplanned bushwhacking in order to avoid a cloud of dust created by a guy driving a pickup truck too fast on the road to the mountaintop.  It turned out okay, though, because we got to see and photograph (just me, of course) some interesting things.

When we were almost finished with the final leg of our hike we saw our buddy Jimmy rounding a bend in the trail directly ahead.  He and I talked for maybe 20 minutes while Becca waited patiently, often lying in the dirt on the trail.  Jimmy and I talked about how plentiful desert wildflowers are this spring, comparing notes about the various types we've seen.  As always we had a very nice conversation, and Becca was more than happy to get some pets and a few ear scratches from her best desert pal.

About a half mile up the trail west of Tortugas Mountain

View from the ridge west of the mountain

Claret Cup flowers look redder under cloud cover

Five-Needled Prickly Leaf

Bunny in jail

Yucca flowers

Mormon Tea

Claret Cup Hedgehog Cactus

Black-tailed Jackrabbit (notice the tip of his right ear)

Chihuahuan Desert flora

Contemplating a uey

Yuccas and the vast Chihuahuan Desert

Closer look at those blossoms

My happy hiking companion

Couldn't decide between these two

#2

Slope of Tortugas and the Organs

White-winged Dove

Closer view of Tortugas's slope and the Organs

Much further north

Picacho Peak (elevation 4959 feet)

Another view of the vast desert

At the Lineman School grounds

Torrey Yuccas and a distant Las Cruces