Bobcats & Vultures

On Monday, we were driving from Rio Grande Village towards Daniels Ranch for lunch, just past the RV park and the old overflow camping area something grey sprang out of the brush and dashed into the road. Mike braked to a standstill. Our first thought was it’s a dog, but dogs aren’t allowed to roam loose in the national parks. As we watched it continued to run and then sprang into the brush on the other side of the road. Grey, similar size to a big dog, runs like a cat, springs into the brush, we’d seen a bobcat! Surprisingly this was in the middle of a hot sunny day and within a stones throw of people on either side. Wow! No pictures I’m afraid as it was to fast.

We continued on to Daniels Ranch, Daniels Ranch is the site of an old floodplain farm.
It’s very pretty with cottonwoods dotting the area.

Today we were lucky enough to find a picnic bench, the other benches filled quickly. Some large black birds with brown under their wings were circling overhead, one of them decided to land, soon to be followed by its mate.

Turkey Vultures!

They didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by the people and were quite happily wandering around, there were French, American and English at the picnic benches, so who knows maybe they were deciding what to have for lunch?

We left them with a choice between French and American as we headed off on a short hike to the Rio Grande overlook.

It’s only a very short hike, but a steep uphill climb all the way and boy was it hot! Ocotillo was in bloom as was the candellila. Candellila looks similar to a reed and can be used to produce wax which is used for various things including lipstick. At one time there were candellila camps all over the area.

Candellila

Ocotillo

The view from the overlook is very pretty, but thankfully it’s downhill all the way back!

Have fun, we are!