Once again our plans for an early start were foiled by the weather. We were warned by the ranger that it was going to be really windy and during the night a big storm blew up. Grateful we weren't in one of those cartop tents! As it was we forgot about our tablecloth and lost one of the strawberry weights holding it down. It had rolled deep into a pricklebush. We also found a pair of forgotten socks later on.
When the rain stopped later in the morning we headed off for a short hike in Alamo canyon.
All that foggy weather makes the cactus grow tall
It was reputedly good for birds but between the stormy weather and the lateness of the day we didn't see much. But we did see a canyon towhee (not long enough to get a photo). Bird of the Day!
Organ Pipe Cactus grow pretty big here too!
The vegetation is a little different in the coolness of the canyon and the higher elevation. Here's a new plant we saw, the jojoba.
Plant of the day!
The trail leads to the remains of the old Alamo Canyon ranch. There's the tiny old ranch house of fired Adobe brick.
The trail leads to the remains of the old Alamo Canyon ranch. There's the tiny old ranch house of fired Adobe brick.
We walked up to the corral and ate our lunch on the cattle trough.
From there we continued up the wash.
There we found Juniper and holly oak.
We kept going till the rocks we had to hop were house size, then we turned around.
We got back to the visitor centre in time for Ranger Kim's patio talk on ravens. We learnt some interesting things about the species. She says a pair of ravens often attend the talk, but not today. But it's also a great spot to see a Costa's hummingbird.
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