Misty Morning Hop
I was awakened this morning at 4:00 AM by a strong thunderstorm, it’s our monsoon season here in the desert. It rained hard for a couple hours and by the time I finished breakfast it was just a light intermittent sprinkle. But the real beauty is it dropped our temperature down to 74 degrees! Hot dog! I’m going riding!
“So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains
Where the spirits go now
Over the hills where the spirits fly”
I headed for the White Tank Mountains, I could see in the distance that the mountain tops were shrouded in low clouds.
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These mountains have a lot of history, they are called The White Tanks, because there are natural bowl shaped pockets of sun bleached granite that act as natural cisterns. There are also natural springs and seasonal waterfalls in these mountains. Consequently these mountains were a stopping point for old West stagecoaches and home to Native Indians a thousand years ago. There are petroglyphs scattered all over these hills.
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Recent rains and lowered temperatures have brought a flush of green and flowers to the desert, it’s amazing how quickly it can come back to life.
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I thought these looked like interesting rock striations , big bands of white rock laced through the black volcanic rock.
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You don’t have to gain much altitude above the desert floor to have far off views to the horizon and another mountain range hiding in the clouds.
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It was a rare cool morning here. Heres to hoping it’s not the last one of the summer!