Post-Rain Trek

Patch of Purple Prickly Pear

Our local meteorologists said no rain today, but all during the extended hike Becca and I took this morning it looked as if the precipitation could start at any moment.  Fortunately we didn't even get sprinkled on.  We encountered several runners closer in to the mountain when we were finishing up, but we saw nobody in the distant outback far west of Tortugas.  Everything was pretty wet in the desert, and it was obvious we got some much-needed rain.  The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum recorded .82" of precipitation; that might not seem a lot to residents of rainier locations, but it's quite a decent amount for desert dwellers.

In the wet high foothills

Clouds over the Organ Mountains

West of Tortugas

Cloudy day in the Chihuahuan Desert

Where are the Organ Mountains?

In the wet sand

Looks like a mesa, but it's clouds over the Organs

Seems it could rain at any minute

Cactus Wren, rear view

A bit more of a profile

Yucca on the other side

Cactus Wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) ruffled by wind

Another lone Torrey Yucca

Organ Mountains transplant?

Wet, sandy arroyo west of Tortugas

Light through the low clouds

What's with the lone yuccas?

Clouds all around

A more expansive look at the Doña Ana Mountains

On the mountain's western slope

Part of Las Cruces and the distant Robledo Mountains

Not Vesuvius

Small Fishhook Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni)

An Even Rainier Day

Becca still drying off

The weather app said Becca and I would be able to get in a hike before the rain started at 10 a.m. (OK, it didn't say that specifically, but you get the idea), though I suspected otherwise.  I was right.  As soon as we exited the car at the trailhead west of Tortugas Mountain it started raining.  I had to put the rain cover on my camera case immediately.  The rain only came down harder during our abbreviated trek so I wasn't able to get any photos.  What we did get was soaked and a little bit of exercise this morning.

She got pretty wet during our hike this morning

But she's towel-dry and warm now

Golden Barrel Cactus loving the rain

The Desert Willows appreciate the moisture, too

Looking across the arroyo that runs beside our house

Rainwater running off our flat roof canale

Not a leaky garden hose . . .

. . . but rather the limb of a Cholla dripping with rainwater

Keeping out of the rain here

White-winged Dove (with a goiter?) on a line outside our place

Much Needed Rain

Rainy start

It rained slightly before Becca and I left home for a morning trek, and we hoped (or at least I did) to get in a decently long hike before it started again.  We were able to do just that, though we did get spat upon a few times (just a light sprinkle).  We ran into a guy named Don and his dog Clover, the latter a one-year-old Becca lookalike.  We've run into them before.  Don showed me a photo on his phone of his brother's dog--the brother who lives in Indianapolis--and his dog looks like Becca, too.  What a coincidence.  Toward the end of our trek we bumped into JC and Olivia; they were just starting out, hoping to get in a hike before the rain began again.

Following a slightly wet trail

Edge of Tortugas (left) and the Organ Mountains

Maybe ten miles from here to there

Gap between the Organ Mountains (left) and the Franklin Mountains

Road to the ridge

The lone yucca

Rainy day desert

Long, wet dirt road

Through an Ocotillo jungle

Soaptree Yucca and Ocotillo

Clover

Becca

Mountains in the rain

Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)

Heading down the ridge

Anybody else about?

Trail up the west side of Tortugas Mountain

JC and Olivia from about a quarter mile away

Barn (lower right) at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum

Olivia and JC from a fur piece