Taking in the Grand View

Vista to the northeast from the Grand View Trail

Dr. K, Becca and I did about 2 1/2 miles on the Grand View Trail this morning before packing up and heading to the lower desert.   For most of our hike a high overcast obscured the sun, but it was fairly warm.  As is often the case on a Sunday morn we had the entire place to ourselves, engendering a real sense of solitude.  

Dr. K and Becca on a wide section of the trail

Sacramento Mountains

Part of the Tularosa Basin

Distraction

Steep Hill Road (center)

The scenery around High Rolls/Mountain Park

Three-quarters of the way there

Level section of the Grand View

Any critters around here?

Small rock ledge

Perfect Weather

Railroad trestle over Fresnal Creek

I may sound like a meteorologist, but the weather in the high country was perfect for hiking this morning.  Dr. K, Becca and I did a long hike to Bridal Veil Falls and back.  We saw nobody on the way, but on the return trip we bumped into a man with a cowboy hat hiking alone, a man and a woman with two Boxers (the dogs not the shorts) and a man and a woman with two mixed-breed dogs.  We were out of the canyon by 10:30, certain to beat the late crowd.

Footbridge over the creek

On the Bridal Veil Falls Trail

Shadow and light along the creek bed

Forging ahead of the pack

An old, long-abandoned homestead

In the gazebo at the falls (right)

Becca and Dr. K

Packrat and Becca

Bridal Veil Falls

Looking out at the White Sands

Burro Street, Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Still quite a bit of snow in places

The assault begins

Hoss (brown) and Champ (black) knock Dr. K backwards

Help me!

Lab sandwich

Hoss making himself comfortable

Up in the High Country Now

We're up in High Rolls now, but Becca and I did a morning hike in the lower desert--a moderate trek.  Then we went home, packed up for a weekend in the mountains, and skedaddled.  The guy who's doing tree removal up here has got me worried; he's piled quite a bit of debris on one area of the property and--discernible from the ash left behind--has been burning wood.  He was supposed to chip trees, not burn them.  Perhaps he'll burn the place down, and then I won't have to worry about it any longer. 

Back Behind the Mountain Again

On the dirt road behind Tortugas

Since we weren't meeting anyone for the final quarter of our hike, Becca and I headed around Tortugas Mountain from the Sunset Parking area.  We did about three-fourths of the hike circumnavigating the mountain, but decided to double back for several reasons:  it added extra distance to the hike (and I felt like being out there longer), and we avoided the Dripping Springs Road leg of the hike, which often has significant traffic traveling east/west along the route.  We saw nobody in the outback during our extended trek.

Wind-caused haze around the Organ Mountains

Moon over Tortugas's southwestern flank

Heading down a steep trail east of the Tortoise

This bird nest resembled an American football, and was as large as one

JC's Last Day

Torrey Yuccas on the mountain's western slope

Sorry to have to say so long to our good friend JC who is heading out with his wife tomorrow morning.  After a few days in northern New Mexico and a few more in the Phoenix area they're heading back to Fairbanks.  Sure hope they'll be around here next year.

The weather has been nice enough for me to take Becca on a short hike each of the previous two afternoons, but it's supposed to get really windy beginning about noon today.  We'll see how it goes.

The Cottontail Becca kicked up this morning

Scouting the trail ahead

Hope this doesn't give me a kink

Blues and greys

Fabulous clouds over Tortugas Mountain

Peregrination

I'm not sure why I've always liked the word "peregrination," but it seems apt for the pilgrimages that Becca and I make to the desert everyday.  Perhaps it's because there are two grins and an entire country in the word.  "Pair" of "grin(s)" "nation."

The music that denotes a bad pun should be playing now.

Shaque (1998-2014)