Best Laid Plans

A favorite sandy spot

My plan was to do a similar hike to the one I did yesterday, but that went awry as soon as I crossed the trail between the two dirt roads west of Tortugas Mountain and decided to do some bushwhacking.  Once I'm bushwhacking into and through different arroyos I seem to lose all sense of time; and because it was a bright, sunny morning I took plenty of photographs.

It was fairly crowded on and about the mountain, but I didn't see anybody in the outback and only ran into a single woman hiker on my way back in.  I encounter her every once in a while; she hikes alone and likes to get out into the outback away from the crowds.

Drove down to the small post office to mail a bill before I headed home and to see the extent of the construction that will be ongoing for the next 18 months at I-25 and University Avenue.  Once the college and Centennial High School are in session again the traffic congestion on University will be a nightmare.

Coy cottontail

Narrow arroyo west of the mountain

Crossing between two dirt roads

Torrey Yucca, Tortugas (left) and the Organ Mountains

The long view

A closer look

An arroyo runs through it

This and the next 3:  same Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Torrey Yuccas

"There's nothing like a good bad dirt road to screen out the faintly interested"

Loggerhead Shrike