As I drove out to the trailhead for my four-mile hike this morning, I was feeling kind of old. Maybe it was the truck’s fault. When I got there, I saw three other vehicles and nobody around. The driver’s side door squeaked loudly when I opened it. Slamming it shut made it go BAM wocka-wocka [...]
Taos Valley Overlook
This photo taken June 24, 2013 (wasn’t carrying my camera today)
It was after Labor Day and all the Texans had gone home. When I arrived at the parking lot, I was all alone. There was no one on the trail. As hot as it was (90 °F), at least the air was dry, and I even had a breeze. Low humidity plus moving air means [...]
Taos Valley Overlook (of course) on a recent evening
No, we’re not exactly underwater here, although Albuquerque got hit with a monster storm the other day. But there hasn’t been a summer like this for a few years. The way it works (when it does work) in the desert southwest is, humid air sweeps up from Mexico and we have thunderstorms in the afternoon [...]
Not so obvious here, but he blended in perfectly with the mat of brown piñon needes
All right, have a look at this! Is that cool or what? The key to understanding this image would be the dried piñon (pine) needles. Some of them are longer than the baby horned toad. This guy isn’t much longer than my thumbnail. A couple centimeters, maybe. You could hide him and his sister in [...]
Saw two of these within 20 seconds of each other on the same trail
Thought I’d run out of horned toad photos, eh? Not on your life! This young one is a little over an inch long. And see that dried sagebrush leaf? Note its size relative to the baby horny toad and then look at this shot, where you see an adult surrounded by scads of sagebrush leaves. [...]
.png)