Resurrection Plants and other pictures

Today was a hot day but fun. We took the mule down to the Rio Grande, or Amistad Lake (where it's backed up). The water backs up into Seminole Canyon at that point.

As promised to some of you folks, we took pictures of a curious plant called the Resurrection Plant, which grows in abundance in this particular area of the park. This plant dries up and withers in dry weather and transforms itself into a lush green plant when it gets some rain. In the third picture, you can see the green plant; the fourth picture shows the plant in its dried-up state. The fifth picture is another Resurrection Plant after some rain; the same plant is shown in the next picture. The tiny pink flower you see is at the tip of a very small cactus, which is about 1" tall. I also took a picture looking up Seminole Canyon to give you an idea of where we saw these plants. The rock ledge we were on is about 150 feet above the water's edge.

The first two pictures are the fishhook cactus, after the blooms died off. The blooms left "fruit". If you look at the pictures from Sept. 12, you will see the blooms. I wonder if you can eat the "fruit" after the spines are burned off.

On the way back, we saw the nest of a cactus wren. They build their nests in the most evil of cactus plants, which protects their nests from predators. Who wants to reach into those long, sharp painful spines? The cactus wren is a small bird, speckled, with a slightly curved beak. We saw one today hopping about on the bush which is right outside our dining room window.

I mentioned that we have seen evidence of digging of large holes here in the campground. While we were making our rounds yesterday, one of the campers stopped us and told us that about 8-10 skunks had awakened them about 1 am the morning before. They (the camper) had food in coolers in a zipped-up cabana thing, like a tent with net sides. The skunks were squeaking and making all kinds of noises trying to get to the food. Aha! Mystery solved. Skunks do dig. She wisely decided not to disturb them, as her family was sleeping in a tent. The skunks finally left. I think maybe Pepe LePew and his bunch are wandering around the campground due to the extreme drought we've had here, possibly searching for food or water.

BTW, there's plenty of water in Amistad (Rio Grande), but it has come from upstream. We're still very dry here.

That's all for now!