Another Hike in the Desert

Linda Uncategorized

We left Las Cruces today to continue on our journey.  We stayed at the Las Cruces KOA while we were there and it is an awesome campground.  Several of the pictures of Las Cruces that we posted the last few days were taken from our camp site.  The view from the camp site was spectacular, the campground was clean and well kept, and the staff was very friendly.  If you plan to camp around Las Cruces, I highly recommend the KOA.

As we were leaving the KOA, we spotted this road runner along the side of the road.  We didn’t hear “beep beep” but we have been listening for it.  We will be keeping an eye out for Wile E Coyote.

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Roadrunner on the side of I-10 in Las Cruces, NM.

We did a hike in the desert to the top of a small mesa.  We weren’t originally going to take Dart this time because he gets over heated easily.  But, the temperature was in the 60’s and it was overcast.  So, we took him with us on a 4 mile round trip hike.  I almost regretted it as we neared the top because the sun poked out and Dart got hot.  We stopped for awhile at the top to let him cool down and to enjoy the view.  It’s tough to find shade.  Regis found a shady spot but I thought I found a better one until I heard all the buzzing around the better tree.  There was a bee’s nest in the trunk.  I conceded that Regis found the better spot.

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We hiked to the top point on this small mesa. (It didn’t seem so small as we were climbing!)
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Linda lagging behind (as usual) while climbing to the top of the mesa.
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Dart and Linda resting after reaching the top of the mesa on our hike. There was another tree that provided more shade but it had a bees’ nest in the trunk. We thought it better to stick with this little tree.
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View of the City of Rocks from the top of the small mesa.

There are lots of rabbits around here, cotton tails and jacks.  We saw some cool bugs, several lizards, and a turtle on our hike.  I kept an eye out for snakes and I am happy to say that I didn’t see any.  I don’t hate snakes, but I am concerned about rattle snakes.

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Turtle in Chihuahuan desert.
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Jack rabbit in Chihuhuan Desert.

The views from the top of the mesa were amazing.  We had to make several stops on our way back down to give Dart a chance to cool down.  As we neared the end, he picked up the pace.  He gives me no reason to worry about him because after his first power nap, he was ready to play ball.  His power naps are very, very short.

Regis and I spent the afternoon sitting in chairs outside the motor home and observing.  We watched a storm approach from miles away.  We weren’t sure whether it was going to hit us and it was interesting to watch.   It did hit us with a glancing blow!

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Watching the rain approach our camp site.