A Morning Rain

Very cool at the start

It was raining gently early this morning, but it had stopped by the time we got out to Tortugas Mountain. At first all the ingredients were in place for a cool hike:  cloud cover, high humidity and a constant breeze.  The humidity makes you sweat, the breeze blows across the perspiration making for perfect evaporative cooling, and there's no desert sun beating down on you.  However, when the cloud cover lifts, the sun shows up to bludgeon you, and the breeze disappears you've got troubles.  That's what happened this morning to Becca and me, and we were damned uncomfortable for the entire second half of our trek.

But humid

Partial rainbow to the west

Heavy cloud cover to the southeast

More blue sky evident the higher we climb

The broad view

Becca hurrying down the single-track ahead of me

The rainbow lasted for quite a long time

Wait!

She did

The desert almost always appreciates rain

Clearing this way

This way through the desert

Organ Mountains

This arroyo is wet, but probably had no running water this morning

Yellow buds

Clearing up

Devil's Head from ground level

Picacho Peak

The way back to Tortugas

Long road across the desert

Further along the same road

Heading into the hills west of the Organs

Queen of the hill

On the road back to Tortugas

How many Ocotillos in the desert?

More Ocotillos

Long way around

Now we've got mostly blue sky

More Barrel Cactus buds

Cool Respite

Early overcast

It was 65F when Becca and I left home at 6:45 this morning, and it actually felt cool out due to the lack of sun and partial overcast.  The clouds persisted for much of our hike, providing a real respite from the oppressive desert conditions of late.  Seven-eights of the way through our trek we ran into our friend Jimmy, a person Becca is genuinely delighted to see.  He always sets his hiking stick down and gives her a good scratching behind both of her ears.  He and I palavered for fifteen or twenty minutes before parting company.

Trudging up the mountain

Rewarded with this view

Sun hasn't reached here yet

Heading west up this road

Ocotillo sky

Sky to the northwest

Why so prickly?

Robledo Mountains

Tortugas and the Organs

Northeast past Tortugas Mountain

The long view

Closing in

Steep ride up the mountain

Dynamic sky

Barrel Cactus

Crown of future flowers

Heard But Not Seen

Scrambling down the single-track

About halfway through our hike this morning Becca and I heard a coyote cacophony coming from an area very near to where we stood.  We made a beeline in that direction, hoping to catch sight of some members of the Canis latrans clan.  But, alas, it was not to be.  This has happened to us in the past; we've hurried forward in hopes of seeing a coyote or two for photographic purposes only to find nothing.  It always amazes me that these clever desert denizens can make themselves invisible to pursuers--no doubt one of the reasons many Native American people referred to the critters as "The Trickster."

Nipple Beehive Cactus blooming for the fifth time

Nipple Beehive Cactus

Sunny with shadowy horizon

I keep trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph a Lesser Nighthawk in flight

A single cloud obscuring the sun

What, in my youth, we used to call "lucky stones"

The middle of nowhere

What you don't expect to see in the middle of nowhere

Shady, thanks to a single cloud

Heading back

Nice break from the heat

Spiritual Prickly Pear pad