January 11th, Marathon was ridiculously cold. Barely any frost on the car windows though, so there was little excitement in town. Driving into Alpine, however, was a completely different story! When you drive west from Marathon along Hwy 90, the road bends to the north at "Altuda Pass" (Altuda at least being the local name for the mountain at the bend) and apparently that's as far as the frozen fog had gotten. Everything beyond the bend towards Alpine was frosted, foggy and white. On the way back to Marathon I snapped this photo (and you can see the slope behind the tree, rising up toward Altuda itself).
On the 19th, it was a balmy closer-to-80 along the Rio Grande, so we took advantage of a Loggerhead Shrike being called a Northern to go investigate. This is the overlook trail at Daniel's Ranch, above Crissal Thrashers and where the Tufted Flycatcher used to hang out.
Of course, today's high was 45 and the wind was a steady 20 mph with gusts over 30 all morning... And for a warmer mental image, here's some prickly pear variety the Lost Mine Trail while the weather was cooperative:
...so the question: is it a purple prickly pear? Or is it a green prickly pear? Or are they two (or three, or four) plants growing close together with complete disregard to their pigmentation? Any prickly experts out there care to comment??
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