Monday, December 19, 2023
On Day One, when I went out for a bike ride, I was totally surprised to see a white horse grazing on green grass on the side of the road. I was out walking when I came up the single horse. Last year when here with Laura, I do not recall seeing anything like this at Cottonwood. We did see horses down at Rio Grande. They come over from Mexico, as do the cows. I saw cows frequently.
There is a small village of Santa Elena on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande in this area. The families that live there support themselves by ranching, so I was told by a volunteer at the Castolon Visitor Center.
Of course there were plenty of birds, including the fabulous Road Runner!
One day while I was driving to Santa Elena Canyon, I came across six horses and a donkey, or is it a mule or a burro? I don't know the difference, but the seventh member of the party was not a horse.
Another day, I was out riding my bike and I came upon a bull standing in the road. I think I frightened it, as it ran off hurriedly in the opposite direction.
On my hike to the South Rim in the Chisos Mountains, I ran into a Mama bear with a cub. it was a 13 mile round trip loop. I waited with three other hikers while we decided what to do. We were standing back out of sight, about 100 yards away, and we decided to make a little noise, talking loudly. The alternatives were to just keep waiting or turn around and hike back the way we came.
It was 3 PM at this point and sunset was around 5:50 PM. If turned around, it was eight miles back to the start, so we would be hiking at least an hour in the dark. And if we waited long were we were, still with about five miles to go, we could end up in the dark as well. Anyway, whether it was the noise we made or some other stimulus, when we walked up the trail the bears had moved. They were climbing up a steep side of the narrow canyon through which the trail traveled. We hurried past them, as they were only about 30-40 yards off the trail.
Comments