The No-Crowd Side

The arroyo beside our house ran heavily last night

I'd decided that Becca and I would hike on the near side of Tortugas Mountain this morning, but when we got out there the Sunset Area parking lot was full and vehicles were crowded on either side of the entrance road as well as packed into the auxiliary lots.  Easy decision then.

There wasn't one vehicle in the Monte Vista Area parking lot and none along the entrance road.  We were pleased (well, I was pleased, and I can only assume Becca felt the same way).  We did nearly our entire trek before encountering two women hikers on our way back in, and, a bit later, bumping into a woman with her 12-year-old Pitbull.  We've run into the woman and Pitbull before, and he and Becca interact nicely, so we let both dogs off lead.  They checked each other out in a friendly manner while the woman and I chatted briefly before going separate ways.

Becca and I had a nice hike; our only complaint:  after last night's heavy showers it was extremely hot and muggy out there this morning.  Can't expect much else for August 4th in the northern Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. 

It crosses the road beyond the boulders

Monte Vista side of the mountain

Tortugas Mountain's northeast side

Hiking the loop trail on the north side

Sotols growing in the foothills

North side

Rocky outcrop

That huge outcrop has a concave face

More distant view

Becca on the trail behind the mountain

Beautiful clouds over the mountain

Franklin Mountains (El Paso) at left and the Sierra de Juarez (center-right)

This and the next:  2 views of the way we just came

This and the next:  2 views of an interesting cloud formation

Ocotillos and the Franklin Mountains

Those mountain bikers are easily two miles distant

Organ Mountains

This and the rest:  four experiments (cloud and the Organ Mountains)