Doña Ana Mountains - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument

Large(for the desert) oak tree

Raindrops, great. Is that snow? No, just tiny little floating pellets of hail, I guess. Aaah, the rocks that stick out of the power line road at the pass. Aaaaand clunk! Every time those metal steps attached to the truck scrape, it's like Dean Martin's joke about cuff links being "curb feelers."  Graffiti is still there. Is that some new stuff on that boulder further along? 

Arrive at my planned parking spot. This gray gravel is tough to walk on or is it through? How is it so deep and so uniform? It's like it was dumped on these roads. I should have driven farther. Cans and bottles, well at least most don't look  that recent. Fewer and fewer people come here since they put in that gate on the good road. First pass-easy. Slippin' and slidin' down the other side. This is a good trail (deer? javelina?) on the other side. I should turn back and look at the shallow alcove with the oak tree in front of it. Okay, okay. No artifacts, nothin,' but it's a neat place and this is a pretty big oak for a desert mountain range.

 Alright, back to the trail, easy up to the second little pass. Windy. Kind of cool. Here we go down. 

Checking out the boulders for petroglyphs. Nothing. Moving from the banks into the ravine itself. Pretty tight in here with its twist and turns. Deciduous bushes on the dirt canyon side with the leaves still yellow. Long seed pods. I am not familiar with whatever is, or I've never really looked closely, or I've been happy to think it's something else (As it turns out it's common name is Tronadora or Trumpet flower or plant, and has spectacular  horn shaped yellow flowers in the warm seasons, which would be quite a sight, and makes me want to return). 

Tecoma Stans var. Angustata

Pushing through catclaw, mesquite, trying to avoid the lechuguilla. That's a scratch. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. Took my eye off the ball for second and get bunch of spines from a purple prickly pear in my leg. Pull the ones in my jeans out. I'll have to wait on the others. OWW! That one went right through my boot. Not going to get it out now. Great. Now it's sunny and hot with this jacket on. Is that a  rock overhang (shelter?) behind those shrubby oaks up there. Let's go see. Up, up. Rustle, clop, clop, clop. Brown tail hanging down with a little white tip. That's a healthy javelina. Snort. Sorry buddy, didn't mean to roust you. No overhang, no shelter. Okay let's stay off the road. It's taking a big U of a turn away from the direction I'm going anyway. 

 Brush was little thick through here

Buzzing of an ATV. Shots way off in the distance. Back on the road now. Stop at a pull-out. Drink. Pee. It's fun to pee right out in the open with the chance of being seen nearly zero. Stuff my jacket in the backpack. A bit of road walking. There's the buzzing red ATV, looks like a kid's toy from here. Go up this  little arroyo, to cut off another wayward turn of the road. I'm so close to catching a view of the Narrow Arch, might as well drift over on this little ridge. There it is. How high is it really? I said 50 feet in the book, but I don't really know. More bottles. More cans.  Too many to even begin to pick up. Michelob Ultra over and over again.  Where vehicles can go, trash follows.What self respecting, littering jackass drinks Michelob Ultra?  Fewer calories are not going to help your fat ass if you drink a hundred of them. 

Looks like a little cave up there. Well, gotta go up. So far this hike has yielded zero evidence of ancient peoples, but I've only picked up a few rocks that aren't pottery, which is better than last time I was out here when I couldn't learn my lesson and got fooled over and over again. Not a cave at all. Another big ocotillo.

The cave that wasn't

Tall ocotillo frequently found against the cliffs

 Bunch of holes in the dirt. Who made 'em? Slippin' and slidin'  back down again. Orange brown leaves in the ravine. That's a big madrone tree. Following a trail barely etched in the hillside looking at one just like it across the way beneath the waxy soft peaks of orange, brown and buff. Gotta get down to the road. Staying in the shade near the gray cliffs, which is a good thing even though it's January 30th. Red ATV buzzing around again. Can he even see me up here?  Stop steps. There's a deer. Buck?  Can't tell from this distance.Get a photo. Here comes another with a little one close behind. Looking at me, looking at them. Quiet. Walk quiet. There they go up  bedrock hillside.  I can hear every one of their steps.

Meringue peaks

                                        

Deer (look for it left of center)

Thinking about which way did I go last time I was out here guiding a group? On top of the saddle  again. Looking around and down for the giant barrel cactus my wife took a picture of me beside many years ago. Not seeing it. Probably has fallen over by now. Pick up the obvious trail on the way back down. More bottles and cans in rills next to this nice little camping site. Shaded now. Back at the blue truck.  4WD handles his gravel fine. Picking up what bottles and cans I can using a planting bag in the back of my truck. It's full and still I get more, but not all. The only way I can even begin to understand this littering, because it's almost entirely beer bottles and cans, is that it's underage drinkers. If it's not then I don't understand it at all. I've been trying to find some kind of significant archaeological site on the BLM (National Monument) lands in the Doña Ana  Mountains for  quite a few years now. There are so many sites in the range, but nothing much to report from the BLM section. I  think I'll leave off exploring these beautiful little peaks, flats and canyons. I'll take people who want to go, but it might be awhile before I'm motivated to come out by myself again. I've been over so much ground here over the years. 

Parked out in the flats. Going over some flat ground while eating my apple. Nothing. Going over some ground where I found a single piece of brown pottery years ago- still, nothing.

Driving home.  Red shotgun shells along the road, that weren't there when I drove in. Picking 'em up putting them in tall drink cup. Too many to fit, but I get 'em all with the second trip.  What happened to the national monument sign? Stolen, I guess. It's been a long time gone. So I guess they've got no plans to put it back up.Take a turn and go down an empty boulevard with  street lights. The plan is to build houses right up to the edge of the public lands so folks can live right next to that stupid golf course ( not that I hate golf, I love it) with  water!!??? in play on every hole