Wednesday, April 23
59 degrees this morning at 7:30 - great sleeping weather last night.
We go back to check out the bird blind this morning - it is very busy! And quite noisy. Beth has loaded an app called "Merlin" which records bird sounds and identifies the bird. It identified a burrowing owl, which I really wanted to see but couldn't find. Mostly quail, doves, finches, wrens and sparrows.We decide to take the trail to Aztec Cave which is about 2 miles RT.
It is 76 degrees when we leave the park around 11:30 and we get back on I-10 into New Mexico. We make reservations for RockHound State Park, which is south of I-10. There are signs along the freeway telling you what to do in a dust storm and it is pretty windy. The land here is always very dry but a local tells us he's lived here 30 years and has never seen it this bad. A real drought. We spot quite a few dust devils in fields and see even more after we get on smaller roads.

The ones nearer the visitors center look happy enough so must get some added moisture. The ocotillo, below, even has leaves (it drops them when not enough water).
There is a nice, relatively new bathhouse with terrific showers. To conserve water, more and more places have showers where you have to push a button to get a minute or two of water. (Of course you can do multiple pushes, but the idea is to get wet then lather up with water off, then rinse.)
We wonder the grounds where you are allowed to pick up rocks and Greg finds a nice, rather large purplish rock for our yard. I pick up what looks to me like a small geode but will wait till we see Kevin and Anita and have them slice it open.
Greg cooks steaks on the grill along with zucchini for dinner - yum! Again, it cools off nicely for a good night's sleep.
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