Barrels, Bees, Butterflies, Hawks and Roadrunners

First two images from Part 1 of today's hikes

Two-part hike this morning, one with Dr. K and the Heelers, which was cut short because of Willow's bad behavior; and the second a solo trek I took from the western gate of Geothermal Road.

My hike was pretty amazing because I got to wend my way along the major arroyo that parallels Geothermal, the bed of the wash made easily passable because of recent rains that left a drying-mud "concrete" in their wake.  I went east almost to Tortugas Mountain before heading south along a dirt road that intersects with the northernmost east/west dirt road.

The biggest benefit from my solo trek was encountering birds, bees, butterflies, hawks and Roadrunners during the exploration.  The most colorful benefit derived from discovering numerous Barrel Cacti growing alongside the arroyo banks.

Roadrunner says, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

Arroyo run

Large arroyo west of Tortugas Mountain

Bee on Climbing Milkweed

Climbing Milkweed

Another bee on milkweed

This & next 2:  major arroyo out of the mountain's west side

Until otherwise captioned all single Barrel Cacti

This and next 6:  triple Barrel Cactus

Queen

A real roller coaster of a road

Swainson's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk