I noticed the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument on the map between Las Cruces and Alamogordo and it had both hikes and camping so I thought I'd check it out. It's not far off the main road and yet it's quiet and somewhat isolated. I hiked the Pine Tree Trail - a loop of about 8 km with 300m (1000 ft) of elevation gain/loss. It was a beautiful trail through the junipers and boulders, with a few small springs, and tall rocky peaks towering in the background.
There was lots of cactus:
I'm not good at identifying trees, but the alligator juniper is an easy one due to its distinctive bark, which also attracts me to its abstract patterns.
The alligator junipers had dropped lots of berries. Some animal had been eating them, but didn't seem to be able to digest them (judging from what came out the other end!) It was smaller than a bear, possibly something like a coyote. Several times I caught a whiff of something musky, presumably some kind of animal, but I never saw anything (other than squirrels).
There were a few small creeks or springs, with a few isolated willows. The fallen willow leaves made interesting patterns on the water.
The water also led to some bright green patches of moss.
I was looking in one pool of water to see what I could see (just one shy water beetle) when I spotted movement on the surface and discovered this ant. It was "walking" on the surface, and didn't seem in danger of drowning. But it didn't seem to be making any progress towards shore either.
I'm always fascinated by the agaves and the patterns of their leaves.
I liked the sun shining through the backlit agave leaves.
Shooting into the sun always gives auto-focus problems. This was an accidental out of focus mistake, but I like the result.
There are lots of big boulders along the trail. It's been a while since I've been climbing so I was tempted onto a few of them to see if I still knew how. I was trying to figure out if I could get up one of them when I noticed a large grasshopper on top. So not only did I have to climb it, but I had to find a perch to photograph from. I posted the photo on iNaturalist.org and it was identified as a Gray Bird Grasshopper, related to the desert locust. The cool weather probably made it more lethargic, and a better photographic subject. I'm not sure why it was sitting on top of the boulder.
See all 24 photos from this batch
There was lots of cactus:
I'm not good at identifying trees, but the alligator juniper is an easy one due to its distinctive bark, which also attracts me to its abstract patterns.
The alligator junipers had dropped lots of berries. Some animal had been eating them, but didn't seem to be able to digest them (judging from what came out the other end!) It was smaller than a bear, possibly something like a coyote. Several times I caught a whiff of something musky, presumably some kind of animal, but I never saw anything (other than squirrels).
There were a few small creeks or springs, with a few isolated willows. The fallen willow leaves made interesting patterns on the water.
The water also led to some bright green patches of moss.
I was looking in one pool of water to see what I could see (just one shy water beetle) when I spotted movement on the surface and discovered this ant. It was "walking" on the surface, and didn't seem in danger of drowning. But it didn't seem to be making any progress towards shore either.
I'm always fascinated by the agaves and the patterns of their leaves.
I liked the sun shining through the backlit agave leaves.
Shooting into the sun always gives auto-focus problems. This was an accidental out of focus mistake, but I like the result.
There are lots of big boulders along the trail. It's been a while since I've been climbing so I was tempted onto a few of them to see if I still knew how. I was trying to figure out if I could get up one of them when I noticed a large grasshopper on top. So not only did I have to climb it, but I had to find a perch to photograph from. I posted the photo on iNaturalist.org and it was identified as a Gray Bird Grasshopper, related to the desert locust. The cool weather probably made it more lethargic, and a better photographic subject. I'm not sure why it was sitting on top of the boulder.
See all 24 photos from this batch
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