Another Hike in the Desert

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.

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.

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.

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!